Here are eight of Chile’s best Carmenère wines
Following an extensive tasting of Chilean wines last month, we bring you eight brilliant reds based on the country’s emblematic grape: Carmenère.
Once widely planted in Bordeaux, Carmenère was believed to have been lost to the world of wine due to the arrival of vine-eating phylloxera in Europe in the nineteenth century.
However, it was discovered thriving in Chile in 1994 by French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot, who identified the variety by its twisted stamens when walking in a Viña Carmen plantation that was believed to be Merlot.
Following this revelation, much of Chile’s Merlot vineyards were subsequently found to be Carmenère, and today, more than 10,000 hectares of the variety can be found in Chile, making it the third most planted red grape in the country after Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
It is thought that Carmenère was not re-instated in its native region of Bordeaux in the early twentieth century post the phylloxera crisis of the nineteenth century because this particular grape did not take well to grafting (the solution to the root-eating phylloxera bug was to graft French grape vines onto phylloxera-resistant American rootstocks).
However, in Chile, where Carmenère had arrived in the early nineteenth century with European settlers, there is no phylloxera, meaning that the grape could be planted on its own roots – something still possible today.
This potted history is important, because it explains why the variety thrives in Chile, when it is virtually absent today from Europe.
But what about the wines it’s being used to produce in Chile right now?
Well, over recent history, viticulturists have developed a better understanding of how to handle this grape, particularly now they know exactly what it is, helping them to manage the variety’s propensity to develop Pyrazines – the capsicum-like flavours often found in Carmenère that isn’t fully ripe, and an off-putting character for some.
Carmenère is not alone in producing such characters, with ‘green’ flavours also common in other ‘Bordeaux’ grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
In the case of Chile’s emblematic grape, however, as I wrote last month, following a major sampling of a range of red wines from this variety, the country can now silence Carmenère sceptics with the soft, fleshy and peppery appeal of this grape.
As I also noted, this is particularly true of Carmenère that is grown in Colchagua, above all Apalta, but also Puemo in Cachapoal. Indeed, part of the increased understanding of how to get the best from this grape is finding the ideal spots to grow it – and Carmenère likes warm sites and well-drained soils.
While the list below isn’t exhaustive, and doesn’t include one of the country’s priciest and most celebrated Carmenères – Kai from Errazuriz (which wasn’t submitted for my tasting) – it does include a good range of fine red wines, including one notable, collectible top-end expression.
TerraNoble CA1 Andes
- Vintage: 2017
- Region: Los Lingues, Colchagua Andes
- Grape variety: Carmenère
- ABV: 14%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £27
Tasting notes: A restrained nose with red and dark cherry notes, and a touch of cedar.
The palate has more open character, with some soft fleshy ripe red berry fruit, with a touch of black olive, some redcurrant, cedar, and dry chalky mouthcoating tannin. Lingering, with freshness, and the intense, ripe red fruit is nicely offset by the dry grippy finish. Good, persistent, structured red.
Score: 93
TerraNoble CA2 Costa
- Vintage: 2017
- Region: Lolol, Colchagua
- Grape variety: Carmenère
- ABV: 14%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £27
Tasting notes: Intense aromatics with masses of dark berry fruit, black cherry and a hint of blackcurrant leaf.
In the mouth this is smooth, with fine tannin, soft black fruit, some red cherry, a touch of blackcurrant leaf, and a bit of nettle too, giving a coolness to the taste. Then comes a lovely long fresh finish, making for a fruity but elegant wine with some cigar box taste but no sweet oak. Impressive, restrained, still youthful, and structured.
Score: 93
Las Ninas E
- Vintage: 2018
- Region: Apalta, Colchagua
- Grape variety: Carmenère
- ABV: 13.5%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £20
- Notes: Organic
Tasting notes: A bright ruby appearance and a peppery nose with some sweet red-berry fruit and then a touch of green capsicum character, making it herbal, cool and fresh.
The palate then delivers some lovely soft, ripe red berry fruit, sweet cherry and juicy strawberry, followed by a touch of white pepper spice and some crunchy capsicum. It’s balanced and fresh on the finish, with just a touch of fine, dry tannin, and some lift, carrying the flavours on and on. Long, but quite light; a likeable, easy-drinking wine with a cool personality.
Score: 92
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Koyle Cerro Basalto Cuartel G2
- Vintage: 2018
- Region: Los Lingues, Colchagua Andes
- Grape variety: 84% Carmenère, 16% Cabernet Franc
- ABV: 14%
- Closure type: natural cork
- Price: £35
- Notes: Biodynamic
Tasting notes: An inviting intense juicy nose of raspberry, blackberry, with a touch of olive and wood smoke and cedar. It is delicious in the mouth, with a lovely structure, medium-weight red and black fruits, but more on the red-berry spectrum, and while ripe, it’s not sweet, with lingering fine dry tannin, a touch of smoke, cedar, and a hint of cherry stone too, giving lift and life to this wine. Impressive, juicy but structured layered and bright. It’s hard not to drink, with its mouth-cleansing combination of dry grip and freshness, making it pleasingly classic and St-Émilion-esque. Lots of life, and potential to lay down. A find.
Score: 94+
Maquis Lien
- Vintage: 2015
- Region: Colchagua
- Grape variety: 49% Carmenère, 42% Cabernet Franc, 9% Syrah
- ABV: 13.5%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £30
Tasting: In terms of aromas, it has soft red fruits, a touch of smoke, cedar, chalk, spice and blackcurrant.
The palate is intense, there is a lovely tight structure to this, and lots of red-berry fruit, some black cherry and blackcurrant too, along with a bit of stewed plum, spice, a hint of black olive, cedar wood, and a long grippy, fresh, spicy finish, giving a mouth-watering dryness. It still seems youthful, and is a serious wine that’s built to last.
Score: 93+
Koyle AUMA
- Vintage: 2014
- Region: Los Lingues, Colchagua Andes
- Grape variety: 53% Carmenère, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 13% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot
- ABV: 14%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £65
- Notes: Biodynamic
Tasting notes: The wine shows a touch of colour development, with a brick-red rim. On the nose, it is intense, with masses of blackcurrant, and a jam character, and some ripe raspberry, plus a touch of cedar and cigar box. In the mouth, it is more subtle than the nose suggests, although there is some sweet ripe blackcurrant fruit, but it’s fading with age, giving way to smoky, cigar-box flavours, some dried tobacco, and fine dry mouth-coating tannin. Although there is some alcohol warmth and sweet fruit, the wine is not overtly heavy, with a nice lift on the finish, which is boosted by the dry palate-cleansing tannic grip.
Score: 93+
Santa Rita Pewën
- Vintage: 2018
- Region: Apalta, Colchagua
- Grape variety: Carmenère
- ABV: 14%
- Closure type: natural cork
- Price: £55
Tasting: Deeply coloured, with a purple rim. It has an intense nose, with concentrated black cherry, ripe olive, berries and notes of dried herbs, with just a hint of cool mint and cedar in the mix.
The palate is delicious, with soft, dark, fleshy, ripe black fruit, olive, spice and background dried herbs, with lovely cedar-wood flavours and a touch of creamy coffee. This is very fine, juicy, fleshy but structured wine with layers of flavour.
Score: 95
Clos Apalta – 20th Anniversary Special Edition
- Vintage: 2017
- Region: Apalta, Colchagua
- Grape variety: 48% Carmenère, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot
- ABV: 15%
- Closure type: Natural cork
- Price: £100+
- Notes: Biodynamic
Tasting notes: This, my top-scoring Carmenere, is made under the watch of the world’s most famous wine consultant, Michel Rolland, using biodynamic vines from Apalta. It has a powerful open nose with ripe red and black fruit, berries and currants, cherries and a touch of green pepper spice, black olive, with a hint of ripe orange, tobacco leaf, then cigar box and creamy coffee. In the mouth this is an explosive wine, with so much delicious fleshy fruit bouncing off the tongue: sweet black cherry, cassis and some ripe plums, then some lingering smoky cigar box, tobacco, toast and cappuccino. The finish is very long, with lovely grippy ripe dry tannins, and, despite the high alcohol, no burn. The multiple layers of fruit gradually fade into a pleasing distance as a subtle orange zest note keeps the mouth watering. Powerful, but very fine. Is there a better (or more expensive) way to win over the Carmenère sceptic?
Score: 98
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