Carmene is back!
The intriguing story of Carmenère starts back in the middle of the last century in Bordeaux, France. At this time, Carmenère was a noble grape variety, and helped produce some of the great wines that were to come out of Bordeaux.
Carmenere was destroyed after the Phylloxera in the late 1800's in France so it "disappeared" from Bordeaux.
A group of adventurous and foresighted Chilean aristocrats who had travelled various times to France in the middle of the last century. They were so impressed by the superior quality of the Bordeaux wines, that they decided to bring back native Bordeaux vine to Chile so that they could start to produce their own fine wines. Amongst the various grape varieties that they brought with them for planting was Carmenère. Until today, Chile is the only principal wine producing country that has not been invaded by the devastating phylloxera bug.
It was widely regarded that Chile only had the four main grape varieties in its portfolio: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. However, Chilean vineyard owners and wine producers were not convinced and proceeded to find out what exactly they were sitting on, since they believed that some of the old plots were mixed up. The task was not easy, but with the help of two French ampelographers, the work was carried out thoroughly and professionally. If it was not a gold mine, it was the next best thing! Many varieties were discovered (or rediscovered), amongst which the veritable star was Carmenère. More excitingly there was plenty of it. In fact, the majority of what the Chilean wine producers thought was Merlot, was indeed Carmenère
