Originating in Bordeaux’s Médoc, Carmenère didn’t exactly move to Chile to seek its fortune, but a ‘happy accident’ led to the rise of the country’s flagship red grape.

Thought of, to a certain extent as a difficult variety – slow ripening and prone to disease – it was more or less abandoned in Bordeaux after phylloxera ravaged Europe’s vineyards in the late nineteenth century.

Fast forward to Chile in 1994 when a variety that had been largely forgotten re-emerged by chance rather than design. Vines previously believed to be Merlot were identified as Carmenère, thought to have been brought over unintentionally from France.

The realisation initially caused concern for the country’s winemaking reputation, but as producers learned how to extract the best from the grape, it became a celebrated point of difference.

The offspring of Cabernet Franc, Carmenère shares similarities with its half-siblings Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Good examples express the soft, fruit-driven elegance of the former with the herbaceous and cedar-spice notes of the latter.

It typically produces full-bodied wines with high tannins and red and black fruit characteristics and works well as a blending component (it’s often thrown into the mix with its relatives).

Outside of Chile Carmenère is grown in other parts of South America, China (where it is known as Cabernet Gernischt), Italy and by a few Bordeaux estates.

When it comes to pairing food with Carmenère, there are plenty of great options. Roasted or barbecued meats make a great match, as do tomato-based and spicy dishes.

Decanter’s Tastings Manager Javier Soto-Miranda, who comes from Santiago, also highlights the suitability of pairing Carmenère with traditional dishes: ‘I do love drinking a glass of Carmenère during Las Fiestas Patrias (the Chilean festival celebrated on 18 September) with a nice Chilean empanada or pastel de choclo (a kind of corn pie).’

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• Chile’s 2024 harvest: Yields lower but quality high

Seven wine styles to drink with pork:

White wine

• Riesling
• Viognier
• Chenin Blanc

Red wine

• Sangiovese (Chianti Classico)
• Mencia
• Grenache / Garnacha (red or rosé)
• Gamay (Beaujolais)

Decanter Premium is the ideal last-minute gift for wine lovers!

Is red or white wine best with pork?

Pork is quite a versatile meat that can match brilliantly with both red and white wines – not to mention orange wine – depending on what you’re cooking or eating. 

Try Riesling white wines or juicy reds with relatively high acidity to cut through the fat content of roast pork belly, or comforting Grenache-led red blends with midweek bangers and mash.

Tuscany’s Sangiovese-fuelled reds, with their balance of structure, wild berry fruit and acidity, can be delicious with a porchetta-style roast or slow-cooked pork shoulder at the dinner table. 

‘Italian reds always have that wonderful acidity that’s perfect with pork,’ wrote Decanter food and wine expert Fiona Beckett in this festive pairings piece.

Food and wine pairing principles

Food and wine pairing has been the subject of debate among wine writers. While proponents outline certain principles, personal taste is hugely important in this arena.

Even classic wine styles may vary between individual producers, but experimenting with different combinations and trying new bottles can be part of the fun.

When it comes to choosing a wine to pair with pork dishes, Jean-Baptiste Lemoine, deputy director of food and beverage at The Goring hotel in London, previously told Decanter it’s important to consider:

• the cut of the pork;
• the way it’s cooked;
• the sauce you are serving it with

Matthieu Longuère, a master sommelier and the wine development manager at Le Cordon Bleu London culinary school, told Decanter in 2024. ‘Whatever the meat is, it depends what you do with it.’

Think about matching the intensity of the wine with that of the dish, as well as any acidity and sweetness brought by ingredients in the meal.

Wine with pork belly and suckling pig

For tender, melt-in-the-mouth suckling pig, Lemoine advised drinking lighter styles of red. These include Spanish Mencia, Nerello Mascalese from Sicily, Pinot Noir from cooler regions or Chilean Carménère.

He also recommended Riesling with a touch of sweetness. This can be a classic with pork belly, too.

‘Roast pork belly works best with a wine that has a high level of acidity plus a touch of sweetness,’ wrote Fiona Beckett, naming 25 top food and wine pairings.

Germany is renowned for top Riesling wines, from dry styles to varying sweetness levels. Great Rieslings are also found in Alsace and the US Finger Lakes area, as well as parts of Austria, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – to name a few sources.

Flavours in the dish can help to lead your wine choice, too.

Apricots in this cider vinegar-roasted pork belly recipe ‘would lead me in the direction of Viognier rather than Riesling’, Beckett noted. 

In a Decanter ‘perfect pairing’ article for chestnut-stuffed pork fillet, she said: ‘Given the sweetness from the chestnuts, prunes and redcurrant jelly, I’d go for a wine that has a touch of sweetness itself. [For example] Alsace or New Zealand or Oregon Pinot Gris, or an old-vine Chenin Blanc.’

Wines to drink with a roast pork

‘Roast pork calls for something that combines richness with acidity, whether it’s white or red,’ Rhône expert Matt Walls previously told Decanter.

For white wine lovers, ‘Condrieu [Viognier] can be a brilliant match for pork roasted with herbs like Oregano or Marjoram,’ said Walls, who is Decanter’s Rhône correspondent and a contributing editor.

He also advised considering fresher styles of Chardonnay, as well as Chenin Blanc from either the Loire Valley or South Africa.

Tuscan reds, such as Chianti Classico or the vaunted wines produced around the hilltop town of Montalcino, can be delicious with a herby pork roast, or a porchetta-style festive dish – as previously noted. 

Walls pointed to Grenache-led wines, as well as Pinot Noir from warmer climates. Grenache is known as Garnacha in Spain, and stole the show in a Decanter panel tasting of red wines from Aragón last year.

Wine to drink with pork sausages

Walls returned to the Grenache theme when considering a wine for pork sausages. ‘For a classic bangers and mash, I tend to reach for a young Grenache-based wine like a southern Rhône.’

Classic blends of Grenache, Syrah (Shiraz) and Mourvèdre – and variations on the theme – are produced in many regions, from the Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon in France to parts of South Australia and California.  

In a similar vein, the Carignan from Languedoc-Roussillon featured in the list below promises to enhance comforting bangers and mash on an autumnal evening, wrote Decanter’s David Williams in his recent review.

Other options include Gamay-based Beaujolais Cru, which can also make a great wine match for traditional Christmas ham. 

Don’t ignore rosé wines or orange wines at the dinner table, either.

Dry rosé wines could be a good bet for BBQ pork, whether pulled or cooked as a chop, said Lemoine. However, the meat might overpower some of the more delicate styles.

Decanter’s Williams recently recommended this budget-friendly, off-dry orange wine led by Grüner Veltliner. ‘A cushion of sweetness makes this a great match for spicy pork dishes,’ he wrote.

Watch out for too much oak in some wines

Beware of wines with prominent oak flavours when it comes to some pork dishes. 

Oak in wine can be tricky with sweet and sour pork, for example, said Longuère at Le Cordon Bleu London. 

‘The oak is quite bitter, quite smoky. If you have something sweet, it tends to make it taste quite metallic. And if you have something quite high in acidity, it clashes.’

Great wine with pork: Inspiration from our experts

The following wines have all been tasted by Decanter’s experts and include bottles at a range of prices.

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Like Sleeping Beauty, Carmenère has long slumbered in vineyards across pockets of Northern Italy. But, more recently, it has begun to stir.

More than a restoration or viticultural correction, it’s a story of the revival of a variety, finally finding a sense of belonging in Italian soil.

Just as Carmenère was mislabelled as Merlot before blossoming into Chile’s flagship variety, Italy has its own tale to tell of this hard-to-identify variety.

How did this Bordeaux expatriate find a new home in Italy’s vineyards, and why is it one of the country’s best-kept secrets?

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The fade

Carmenère originates from the Médoc, the result of a natural crossing between Cabernet Franc and the rustic southern French variety Moural (Lacombe et al. 2013). Until this recent discovery, Gros Cabernet was considered to be a parent variety.

Mentioned as early as 1784, Carmenère was never widely planted, often mixed in with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc – and blended with them as well.

Known for its deep colour and aromas of blackberries, black pepper, chocolate, and leather, it gained popularity at the beginning of the 18th century.

However, its fate in Bordeaux was sealed in the late 19th century, when phylloxera devastated much of Europe’s vineyards. Susceptible to disease and slow to ripen, Carmenère was abandoned in favour of more reliable Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Yet the grape didn’t vanish entirely.

Against the odds, one of the places Carmenère found refuge was along the base of the Italian Alps – around the Colli Berici in Veneto, as well as in historic vineyards at the foot of the Lessini Mountains in Trentino, with smatterings across northeastern Italy, and even in small plots that share real estate with sparkling Franciacorta.

Carmenère’s arrival in Italy

The timing is debated, but Attilio Scienza, scientific advisor for Vinitaly International Academy and Professor at the University of Milan, claims that the most convincing hypothesis is that Carmenère arrived in 1820 via Piedmont – 40 years before the arrival of phylloxera.

José Vouillamoz, leading authority on the origin and parentage of grape varieties through DNA profiling, agrees. In 1820, the Conte di Sambuy – anticipating the Super Tuscan trend by more than a century – was convinced that his terroir of Valmagra (northwest of Turin) was very similar to that of Médoc, and so he purchased Cabernet Sauvignon vines directly from Bordeaux.

‘However, a few vines of Carmenère were mistakenly present among the plantlets of Cabernet Sauvignon,’ explains Vouillamoz. This mix-up was just the beginning…

In the mid-19th century, under the House of Savoy, Piedmont looked to France for direction. Napoleon III’s support in liberating northern Italian territories from Austrian control only deepened the bond, making France the model not just in politics and the economy, but in viticulture as well.

‘For this reason, they began to cultivate grape varieties from France, particularly from Bordeaux,’ says Scienza. ‘In Piedmont, Carmenère was called Carmenera or Cabernella, and was valued for making good wine.’

While Piedmont had the first vines, Carmenère became more prominent across the eastern regions. But was it the soils that saved Carmenère in Italy, or was its preservation merely a result of confusion over its true identity?

According to Vouillamoz, who, in his new book, Grands Cépages d’Origine Française, outlines Caménere’s family tree and identifies Cabernet Franc as its parent, it was the latter.

‘In France, Carmenère was confused for a long time with Cabernet Franc, and it was even considered by some as a degeneration of Cabernet Franc. When introduced in Italy, the mistake persisted, and Carmenère was propagated and labelled as Italian Cabernet Franc for over a century,’ he explains.

Carmenère’s survival in Italy was largely due to mistaken identity, yet the country’s diverse terroirs provided a lifeline. Notable is Veneto’s Colli Berici, where unique microclimates, soils, and long growing seasons offered the conditions it needed, allowing for full ripening and complexity.

The result is an Italian Carmenère that minimises the vegetal notes typical of cooler regions and instead showcases its hallmark flavours of dark cherry, spice, black pepper, and cocoa.

The awakening

Its true identity blurred by names like Carmenera, Cabernella, Bordeaux Nero, and Cabernet Vecchio, Carmenère often remained hidden and confused for other varieties.

In 1903, Salvatore Mondini, renowned for his scholarly contributions to viticulture, noted that Carmenère had white shoot tips, while Cabernet Franc’s were pink, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that the Experimental Institute for Viticulture of Conegliano and the Catholic University of Piacenza formally distinguished the two.

Further research and DNA studies by Attilio Scienza, Antonio Calò, Jean-Michel Bourisquot and others led to a stunning revelation in the mid-1980s: the ‘Italian Cabernet Franc’ was indeed Carmenère.

And by 2007, Carmenère received official recognition in Italy’s national registry of grapes.

Trentino

A captivating story of this mix-up originates from the historic Tenuta San Leonardo estate in Trentino, which has been producing Bordeaux-style reds featuring Carmenère for generations.

‘Carmenère, as we know it today, has been growing on the estate since the 1940s, likely planted by my great-great-grandfather,’ says Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga. ‘It’s the soul of San Leonardo — authentic, rooted, and deeply connected to our land.’

However, until the late 1990s, they believed they had been cultivating Cabernet Franc.

In 1988, Anselmo’s father, Marchese Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga, ordered vines from their French supplier and noticed differences, such as variations in leaf colour the following winter. A friendly tip during Scienza’s visit revealed they had been growing Carmenère all along.

San Leonardo had traditionally produced red blends, but Anselmo secretly created an all-Carmenère wine and gifted it to his father, claiming it was from France. After tasting it, Carlo remarked, ‘Hmmm, it’s very good, but it tastes like our Carmenère!?’

This year, Gonzaga began a massal selection on the estate’s 75-year-old Carmenère vines to capture the genetic character of their heritage vineyard.

‘It’s a long-term investment, but we believe it will bring something precious: more authenticity, more depth, and greater longevity to our vineyards,’ he notes.

Franciacorta

In Franciacorta, sparkling wine producer Ca’ del Bosco grows Carmenère alongside classic French varieties. In 1990, it imported what it believed were Cabernet Franc cuttings, but testing subsequently revealed they were actually Carmenère.

The winery released its first Carmenère in 1997 as a table wine, gaining Rosso del Sebino IGT status in 2008. The label, featuring a wolf shedding a lamb’s fleece, symbolises the way it managed to pass for something it was not.

‘Carmenero’ comes from two organically-farmed hectares of 30-year-old vines, with special bottlings from standout vintages since 2006.

‘Our Carmenero stands out for its fruity character and light spiciness’, says winemaker Stefano Capelli, adding that Franciacorta’s morainic soils enhance the grape’s floral and fruity traits.

Colli Berici

In the Veneto, renowned Soave Classico producer Stefano Inama was motivated by his love for Bordeaux to plant a black variety. By happenstance, he discovered Carmenère.

He recalls an eye-opening moment after tasting an unlabelled Carmenère wine that his friend offered.

‘I immediately loved it!’ Inama says. ‘It turned out to be from the Colli Berici, and this is what I wanted to do.’

Inama and his family, who now own 14 hectares of 20- to 30-year-old vines, say that what started as a passion evolved into a mission. He believes Colli Berici is the variety’s spiritual home, lying close in latitude to Bordeaux.

The Colli Berici area enjoys warm days and fresh nights with microclimates influenced by nearby woodlands. These conditions allow grapes to reach ripeness, developing signature berry, spice, black pepper, and chocolate notes while minimising green herbaceous flavours.

Furthermore, Inama points to the distinctive geology shaped by underground magmatic pressure (bradyseism), which formed an ancient marine limestone ridge topped with cool, red, iron-rich clay. In 1997, his first Carmenère blend, ‘Bradisismo’, was named after this geological phenomenon.

In 2009, Carmenère was officially recognised as a grape in the Colli Berici DOC, with Inama’s ‘Oratorio di San Lorenzo Carmenère Riserva’ being the first DOC wine made from this grape – a milestone for Italian wine.

Inama also champions the relevance of traditional varieties in the Veneto, with Michele Milani leading the project alongside other producers. ‘Our goal is to create clarity about how varieties like Carmenère arrived in Italy, and today are being reinterpreted with quality and vision,’ says Milani.

Serendipità contro strategia

Carmenère is predominantly planted in the Veneto and neighbouring northeastern regions covering 10,503 hectares, as reported by Kym Anderson’s census (University of Adelaide Press).

It is ocassionally discovered in field blends from ancient vineyards. In 2011, for instance, Vouillamoz performed DNA profiling on some of the oldest vines from Alois Lageder’s vineyards in Alto Adige that produce the ‘Löwengang’ bottling.

‘It turned out to be a field blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and some Merlot. It’s interesting to note that many of the oldest vines are Carmenère,’ says Vouillamoz.

Carmenère’s Italian story is less about strategy but more about serendipity.

The variety found a foothold tucked away among its Bordeaux kin in vineyards that didn’t even know it was there.

Yet those very mix-ups become part of a patchwork of wine culture, leaving Italy with its own chapter in the curious case of Carmenère.

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The stellar reputation of South America’s premium red wines has been built on the region’s iconic varietal wines: Argentinian Malbec, Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère, and Uruguayan Tannat.

Yet these wines are a relatively recent phenomenon, only really gathering pace in the 1980s when South American wineries – their sights set on export – joined the wave of varietally labelled wines emerging from the New World.

Prior to this shift in focus, South American winemakers had been more interested in producing European-style blends – and Bordeaux blends in particular. This was a reflection of the early French and other European influences on the local wine industry.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 premium South American red blends

Blending traditions

The first South American vineyards were planted by Spanish settlers and missionaries in the 1500s, but it was the wave of European immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s that had the most significant impact on the development of the modern South American wine industry.

Many wineries were founded or advised by French vignerons, and mass immigration from wine-producing regions of Spain, Italy and France in particular ensured that European varieties and sensibilities took hold. European blends found a new home in South America.

Varietal Malbec, Cabernet, Carmenère and Tannat moved into starring roles on the world stage in the decades following the 1980s surge, and since then top winemakers have continued to evolve their premium blends behind the scenes.

The best Bordeaux-style blends are far from mere imitations of Bordeaux. South America’s winemakers are creative, blending in the local heroes Malbec, Carmenère and Tannat.

Other European varieties such as Syrah and Cabernet Franc are also adding refinement, with winemakers seeking to balance tradition and innovation.

Meanwhile, the emergence of new geographical indications (or GIs – delimited areas indicating the origin of a wine, which may be stated on labels), such as the sub-regional GIs of the high-elevation Uco Valley, is encouraging experimentation with new grape varieties, such as Rhône-style blends based on Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.

The character of local terroirs and individual vintages is being given increasing weight, too; good vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2021 have seen quality elevated to new heights.

Greater finesse

The line-up of premium South American red blends from which I made this selection included some truly world-class wines. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the tasting was an evident stylistic shift towards greater finesse – these will always be wines of body and opulence, but they are increasingly elegant and vibrant, too.

And although these are wines built to last another decade – or longer – in the cellar, you’ll find that many are drinking beautifully already.

It’s no surprise that many of these wines are earning recognition in prestigious markets, including La Place de Bordeaux (since the 17th century used as a central distribution network for Bordeaux wines, but which in recent years has developed into a platform to sell elite wines from around the world).

Cheval des Andes became the first Argentinian wine to be sold through La Place in 2003.

Premium red blends have played the role of understudy in South America for decades, but they are steadily now moving into the spotlight – it’s time to take a fresh look.

Notes and scores for 18 top South American red blends

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It was a complete shock,’ says Alvaro Espinoza, remembering the fateful moment 30 years ago. Jean-Michel Boursiquot, the French ampelographer, had just informed him that his prized Merlot vineyard was not what he thought it was. ‘He told me it wasn’t Merlot at all… that it was a grape variety I’d never heard of – Carmenère!’

It was 24 November 1994, and Espinoza was a 32-year-old winemaker at Carmen, in Chile’s Maipo Valley region. Espinoza spoke some French, so he’d been invited to host Boursiquot and show him around Carmen’s vineyard. He certainly hadn’t been expecting a lightning-bolt moment – one that would change not only his career, but the history of Chilean wine.

Scroll down for 15 of Chile’s best Carmenère

At the time, Carmenère was believed to be practically extinct. This ancient variety had travelled around Europe’s wine regions, becoming one of the key varieties in Bordeaux by the early 1800s.

But when the devastating phylloxera plague wiped out great swathes of Europe’s vineyards, Carmenère was among the victims. The variety was all but lost from the vineyards of Bordeaux and was never replanted to any significant degree.

Survival in exile

But that belief, it turns out, was wide of the mark. While accurate records from the time are scant, the thinking is that Carmenère had already been brought over from France into Chile, along with other varieties, by the mid-1800s, before phylloxera hit Europe.

Leading Chilean historian Pablo Lacoste has stated, in an interview for Wines of Argentina, that ‘Carmenère and Malbec entered Chile and Argentina in the mid-19th century, as part of the Frenchification of viticulture…’

The Carmenère was mistakenly labelled as Merlot and planted around the country under a false guise. Thus it secretly survived in exile for more than 100 years, until that fateful spring day in 1994.

Now tasting the wine in tanks with Boursiquot, Espinoza could see how that plot of his best ‘Merlot’ had notably different flavours to the other plots – it was spicier, yet softer. The penny dropped. ‘I was suddenly really quite excited to be discovering this lost variety!’ he remembers.

But the dream discovery soon became a nightmare. ‘I was receiving threats every week over the phone,’ Espinoza goes on. ‘I lost several kilos due to stress.’ It transpired that many more of Chile’s so-called Merlot vines were in fact Carmenère – and some members of the Chilean wine industry were, to put it mildly, reluctant to embrace it.

At the time, Merlot was Chile’s boom variety – especially popular in the growing US market – and no one wanted Chile’s big secret to adversely affect sales. Just a few years earlier, Chile had suffered a similar fate with its Sauvignon Blanc, plantings of which had been revealed to be the far lower-quality Sauvignonasse variety.

The reputation of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc sank like a brick. Replanting with the correct variety took years; the reputational rebuilding would take decades.

‘We’d had a similar experience with our Sauvignon Blanc, so we had our concerns,’ remembers Aurelio Montes, then a consultant to Fundación Chile (the think tank that had brought ampelographer Boursiquot to Chile) and now one of Chile’s most prominent Carmenère champions.

‘But we were still completely shocked. Imagine discovering that we had an ancient variety in Chile which barely existed anywhere else in the world!’

A conundrum

They faced a conundrum. ‘Do we tell the world, or keep it quiet?’ recalls Montes. ‘It was a great embarrassment to have discovered a century later that our award-winning Merlots weren’t actually Merlot… Not only was it going to be embarrassing for Chile, but also for the critics who were giving it recognition.’

In the end, they ’fessed up. But those pioneers who first took Carmenère to market felt like they were swimming against the tide. ‘I honestly thought I was going to lose my job; almost every week I was told I was putting the future of Chilean Merlot at risk,’ remembers Espinoza.

He launched the 1994 vintage that Boursiquot had tasted as the world’s first commercial release of Carmenère (bottled under its synonym, Grande Vidure) in more than 130 years.

Espinoza travelled to key markets to showcase the new wine and discovery, to the serious concern of many at home. However, after one publication published a full-page splash on the revelation – and gave Chile its first 94-point score – the tide turned. Carmenère and Espinoza had left Chile as demons, but returned as heroes.

And so the real work began.

Teething trouble

‘It was a beautiful story – rescuing a prehistoric variety from extinction,’ Montes now concedes. ‘But it got off to a bad start… a lot of those first wines were terrible!’

With few significant points of reference in the contemporary wine world, Chile’s wine industry was now grappling with learning how to grow, vinify and market an unknown variety. And it wasn’t easy to master.

It was Carmenère’s challenging nature that contributed to it not being replanted in Bordeaux post-phylloxera – it is vulnerable to coulure (poor fruit set) and has a propensity for high vigour, which can have deleterious effects on yield, grape quality and, in turn, wine quality.

So if you get the climate, soil or viticulture wrong, you can end up with a very green, harsh and thin wine.

These are lessons Chile had to learn the hard way, through experience. Carmenère may have been an ancient variety, but it was now experiencing a second adolescence – and all the growing pains that come with it.

‘Chilean Carmenère quickly earned a bad reputation,’ recalls Montes. ‘There was a lot of poor-quality Carmenère that had been planted in the wrong places, harvested at the wrong time and vinified in the wrong way.’

Hard-learned lessons

The lessons have been hard-earned but there is a consensus among winemakers today: plant Carmenère somewhere warm with soils that are poor enough in nutrients to reduce vigour but that can retain adequate water in winter.

Also, the older the vines, the better. ‘The old vines naturally produce very small bunches, which mature really well,’ explains Undurraga winemaker Rafael Urrejola, whose Extinto vineyard in Cachapoal, south of Santiago, is more than 75 years old.

‘The dry-farmed old vines also naturally give you a lower pH and higher acidity, which is always the challenge with Carmenère.’

Because it can struggle to retain acidity in hot climates, Carmenère is often blended with higher-acid varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. But if you find a sweet spot, the variety can also stand on its own – as many of the best examples from Peumo and Apalta in particular go to show.

Old variety, new story

This year marks 30 years since the discovery of Carmenère in Chile. In the past decade, we’ve seen an enormous leap in quality, with a number of different paths to success being uncovered.

Two major Carmenère schools have emerged: the first, exploiting the variety’s late-ripening nature to the full, champions more opulent wines, lavish in their ripe fruit character and silky mouthfeel; the second favours a fresher, more peppery style, embracing the variety’s spicier side.

Montes is of the former school: ‘I believe in full ripeness for Carmenère,’ he affirms. ‘It is the last variety I harvest – only when we have the notes of dried figs, ripe cherries and blackberries, with smooth, mature tannins and a full body.’

Montes’ iconic Purple Angel is the embodiment of this style, a wine that is wildly successful in certain markets. Other major names, including Santa Carolina, Concha y Toro and Casa Silva, are also advocates of this school.

‘If there is any single grape variety that allows you to abuse a post-fermentation maceration, it is Carmenère!’ chuckles Mario Geisse, technical director at Casa Silva. ‘Although it has plenty of tannins, they are smooth and round, and you can have these extensive macerations without the wines being aggressive at all. Carmenère made in this way can age for well over a decade.’

On the flip-side, producers such as De Martino, JP Martin, Koyle, Maquis, Santa Rita and Undurraga are harvesting earlier and performing light macerations to obtain floral, spice-driven expressions.

‘We have learned that you can push the limits with Carmenère,’ says Santa Rita winemaker Sebastián Labbé, who started experimenting with a radically fresher style of Carmenère in 2017. ‘You can pick earlier, use whole bunches and cooler ferments to get much more texture and tension.’

Urrejola is of the same mentality: ‘We have actually started making our Carmenère more like Pinot Noir, with a really gentle extraction,’ he says. His new Extinto (soon to be available through UK agent Hallgarten Wines) is one of the most floral and elegant Carmenère wines I have tried to date, offering yet another dimension to this chameleonic variety.

Into the limelight

Whichever Carmenère school Chile’s winemakers belong to, one thing is for certain: Chilean Carmenère is no longer struggling with an adolescent identity crisis. These different styles of Carmenère reflect Chile’s growing confidence in its innate diversity of terroirs and personalities. Both schools of thought have their place, and undoubtedly both will attract a different set of followers.

And now, more than ever, Chile’s winemakers have been emboldened to share the incredible story – and wines – of this once-lost variety that found its way in Chile.

Chile’s best Carmenères

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Eduardo Chadwick, the 2018 recipient of Decanter’s Hall of Fame award, has been instrumental in elevating Chile to the international fine wine stage.

As the country transitioned to democracy, and opened up to international markets, Chadwick finished his university degree and went on to become one of the most important faces in the swift modernisation of Chile’s wine industry.

He is the fourth generation of the Errázuriz-Chadwick family to take the the helm of Viñedos Familia Chadwick, and his unwavering belief in the potential country’s terroir to produce world-class wines has seen him become a natural ambassador for Chilean wine.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of old and new vintages of Errázuriz and Seña

Over the past three decades Chadwick has nurtured a pool of viticulture and winemaking experts who have become renowned in their own right, while future-proofing the legacy of not only the Errázuriz portfolio of wines but also of Seña, his personal project.

After 20 years as chief winemaker at Errázuriz and Seña, Francisco Baettig passed the baton to 32-year-old Tomás Muñoz at the end of 2023. Muñoz now leads a young, diverse team of oenologists and viticulturalists. Meanwhile, two of Chadwick’s four daughters have also taken leading roles in the business.

The Berlin Tasting

For years Chadwick had harboured a deep frustration with a global lack of recognition and appreciation of Chilean wines. He believed this lack of awareness precluded a fair assessment of Chile’s best labels.

Chadwick’s moment of epiphany arrived in the early 2000s with the idea for a tasting like the 1976 Judgement of Paris showing his flagship wines alongside 100-point Bordeaux first growths and Super Tuscans.

The tasting took place in Berlin on 23 January 2004 and was hosted by Chadwick, Decanter’s Steven Spurrier (who organised the 1976 Judgement of Paris between Californian and French wines) and René Gabriel (one of the foremost German-speaking wine critics at the time). Some 36 experts from around the world blind tasted 16 wines (six Chilean, six French and four Italian wines).

The results were both surprising and significant: Chadwick’s Viñedo Chadwick 2000 and Seña 2001 won first and second places respectively. The announcement of these results represented a landmark moment for Chilean fine wine.

A March 2024 tasting in London marked the 20th anniversary of what became known as the Berlin Tasting – and the 10th anniversary of the 10-year world tour that followed it, where new vintages achieved consistently eye-opening results.

The London event also launched the 2021 vintage of Errázuriz’s four flagship wines, Seña, Viñedo Chadwick, Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve and Kai, whose tasting notes can also be seen here.

Cabernet Sauvignon, unmistakably Chilean

The London tasting was bookmarked by journeys through two different, yet both very Chilean, Cabernet Sauvignons: Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve (Don Max) and Viñedo Chadwick.

Each wine is a tribute to a key figure in the history of Errázuriz: Don Maximiliano Errázuriz, Chadwick’s great-grandfather and founder of the original family estate; and his father, Don Alfonso Chadwick, who took over the family business in the 1980s and set the stage for his son’s success.

The four vintages of Don Max tasted at the London event showed the evolution from a single-variety Cabernet Sauvignon to a Cabernet-based Bordeaux blend. French geologist Françoise Vannier-Petit was instrumental in increasingly attuning the wine to the nuances of terroir and vintage.

It was fascinating to observe how the inaugural 1984 vintage still showed vibrancy and purity 40 years on, a testament to the quality of the selected Aconcagua Valley plots that produced it.

Chadwick wanted to plant the Viñedo Chadwick vineyard on the gravel soils of his father’s prized polo field. Don Alfonso – considered one of the greatest players in the history of Chilean polo – at first resisted the idea, but ultimately accepted it as a tribute to his dual roles as a leading athlete and visionary wine entrepreneur.

The four vintages of Viñedo Chadwick tasted showed an evolution towards elegance and filigreed aromatics. The 2014 vintage stood out, representing a point of arrival in the quest for precision, freshness and detail.

Errazuriz 2021 releases

Seña – 98-points

Viñedo Chadwick – 98-points

Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve – 96-points

Kai – 95-points

An iconic joint venture

In 1991 Eduardo was asked to spend a week showing Robert Mondavi and his wife Margrit the best terroirs and producers in the Aconcagua, Maipo, and Colchagua valleys. This meeting of like-minded visionaries marked the start of a shared quest to produce a world-class wine that could capture the essence of Chile: ‘a Bordeaux blend with a Chilean soul’.

Mondavi and Chadwick signed the joint venture in 1995 and released the first (1995) vintage of Seña – meaning ‘sign’ – two years later.

Tim Mondavi, Robert’s son was in London at the time of the 2024 London tasting, and the vibrant exchange between him and Chadwick provided insight into the project’s inception and philosophy. They said the first priority had been to find the best terroir on a self-contained site, to support the adoption of biodynamic farming practices without any risk of external contamination.

Errázuriz Wine Group took full control of Seña Wines in 2004, following the sale of Robert Mondavi Corporation to Constellation Brands. Chadwick gained control of Mondavi’s share of the business, allowing him to remain custodian of the brand and wine.

Over the years the amount of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Seña blend has decreased in favour of more significant percentages of Carmenère and Malbec which contribute to the wine’s idiosyncrasy and sense of place.

Reinterpreting Carmenère

Kai is the outlier in the Errázuriz-Chadwick flagship portfolio. First released in 2006 with the 2005 vintage, it was created to explore the fine wine potential of Chile’s signature variety, Carmenère.

From vineyards on the gravelly and loamy soils of the third alluvial terrace of the Aconcagua River, the oldest planted in 1993, Kai (which means ‘plant’ in Mapudungun, the language of the indigenous Mapuche people) demonstrates the site’s affinity with the slow-ripening variety.

Kai celebrates Carmenère’s savouriness and elegant rusticity, reinterpreting a once hard-to-ripen variety likely to become more relevant as the climate changes. Different blending companions (Petit Verdot, Syrah and Malbec) help to define the wine’s contour, while adding fleshy depth.

Overall, the tasting showed a clear evolution towards finesse and freshness, a particularly impressive achievement in the face of climate change. The retention of vibrant acidity and moderate alcohol never compromised aromatic complexity or tannic poise.

It will be interesting to see where Muñoz takes these labels as he settles into his new role and the team explores the increasing focus on sustainability and soil research. A similar tasting a decade years from now would be a fascinating exercise.

Errázuriz and Seña: New and old vintages of these flagship Chilean labels

Wines are listed in score order

Related articlesMarch releases on the Place de Bordeaux 2024: Report and top-scoring winesCaballo Loco: Profile of a Chilean icon and 12 wines to tryChile’s Viñedos Familia Chadwick has new technical director

Drive the D2 route 35 miles north of Bordeaux through the Médoc region, and you pass the stone gateposts, seas of vines and noble buildings of the Left Bank’s most celebrated châteaux.

In the Margaux appellation, a colonnade of trees leads to Palladian-style Château Margaux. Further north in St-Julien, waving flags fly atop Château Ducru-Beaucaillou.

A domed stone pigeon house amid the vines signals Château Latour in Pauillac, while Château Lafite Rothschild appears just before the road curves towards St-Estèphe and the pagoda-like turrets of Château Cos d’Estournel.

Famous estates give the Médoc’s four most important appellations their reputation for great wines sold at astronomical prices. But lurking in the same postcodes are less well- known properties whose wines cost less than they should, based on their quality.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Elin McCoy’s top-value Médoc wines

For those estates, prices and reputation haven’t caught up with recent improvements brought about by a new owner with plenty of cash, a dynamic wine consultant, or a shift to organic viticulture.

Others languished because the wines were only available in one or two markets and not much was tasted until recently. And at some once-sleepy châteaux, a new, more ambitious generation has just taken the helm.

All of them offer undervalued wines for savvy buyers willing to look beyond the big names.

Margaux

This large, diverse and sprawling southern Médoc appellation boasts first to fifth growths, crus bourgeois and unclassified estates. Many churned out mediocre wines from the 1960s to the 1990s; only in the past two decades has Margaux become a hotbed of rising stars.

Châteaux Palmer, Rauzan-Ségla, Brane-Cantenac and d’Issan are at the top of their game, with d’Issan the best buy.

Others are on the cusp, like pink-stuccoed, unclassified Château Siran, long owned by the Bordelais Miailhe family. Yes, convicted counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan used Siran 1955 in fake first growth wines, but the château’s reputation began climbing after the current young generation’s Edouard Miailhe returned from Manila to take over in 2007 and start renovating. Since the 2015 vintage, the wines have become deeper and more luscious, and Miailhe has boosted wider awareness with an innovative tourism programme.

Also in my sights are Château Labégorce and third growth Marquis d’Alesme. Once run-down properties, they’ve been revamped since 2010 by the billionaire Perrodo family. Oil magnate Hubert Perrodo bought Labégorce in 1989, reunited the original parts of the estate, and snapped up Marquis d’Alesme in 2006 before being killed in a skiing accident.

But this sad story has a happy wine ending. At age 24, his daughter Nathalie took charge, hiring an all-woman team, including talented managing director Marjolaine de Coninck, to realise her father’s dreams. At Labégorce, replanting continues, and a new winery debuted in 2019.

Marquis d’Alesme’s stunning new cellar, in the centre of the village of Margaux, opened in 2015, along with a tasting bar and lovely garden to visit. Quality jumped with the 2015 vintage; however, prices haven’t risen that much. As de Coninck explains: ‘We need to be conscious of what price consumers are ready to pay for the wine. That takes time.’

In 2020, the family bought Château La Tour de Mons, which will eventually become another good-value pick.

St-Julien

Smaller than the other appellations, St-Julien has no first growths and 11 crus classés, from second to fourth growths.

Classified châteaux own 90% of the land. Maybe that’s why quality here is more consistent overall. Second growth stars Ducru-Beaucaillou, Gruaud Larose, Léoville Barton, Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Poyferré all shine brightly, and their second wines, as well as those from other châteaux they own, offer exceptional value.

One example shows why: the team at Ducru, including renowned consultant Eric Boissenot, also lavish their expertise on unclassified Château Lalande-Borie (renamed Le Petit Ducru), and La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, a terroir-focused cuvée that stands on its own.

Created in 2005 from a specific plot of Ducru’s vineyard, it sports a label designed by Jade Jagger and has some of the same dense, velvety character as the estate’s grand vin at less than a third of the price.

Two other overperforming estates are unclassified Château Gloria and fourth growth Château Saint-Pierre, both owned by the Triaud family under the umbrella of Domaines Henri Martin. Many Americans first read the underdog tale of how Henri Martin built Gloria by cobbling together parcels of vines from classified estates, created a gorgeous wine and cleverly promoted it in an article by a well- known novelist in The New York Times in the 1970s. Now the wine is no longer undiscovered and it’s better than ever, but still sells for very reasonable prices. If the 1855 classification were revamped, Gloria would surely be added.

Saint-Pierre’s under-the-radar status is partly down to the fact that it’s the smallest, least famous cru classé in St-Julien and partly down to its fractured history. The Martin family painstakingly pieced it back together in the 1980s.

In the past decade, both wines have become more confident and impressive. In 2016, a top-to- bottom renovation of the cellar where they’re made gave quality an extra push. Gloria upped its rich fruit and charm, while Saint-Pierre now delivers plump, cool fruit with chocolatey tones.

Pauillac

Home to three famous first growths – Châteaux Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild and Latour – this is the Médoc’s most illustrious appellation.

You could be forgiven for assuming it’s not the place to seek undervalued bargains. But guess again. Among the 12 fifth growths, which count Lynch-Bages, Pontet-Canet and Grand-Puy-Lacoste as super successes, are some neglected estates whose wines are becoming classics.

My first pick is Château Pédesclaux. Despite neighbours such as Pontet-Canet and Mouton Rothschild, its wines long suffered from a poor reputation for good reason. Before being sold in 2009 to real estate magnate (and owner of a popular Paris rugby team) Jacky Lorenzetti, the property had been through 40-odd owners, many of whom weren’t exactly dedicated to quality. The wines were barely known, sold through only one UK retailer. Its château was nondescript, located on a potholed street near an auto-repair shop.

Its transformation has been a revitalisation on a grand scale through plenty of money, a top winemaking team and astute management. Adding new vineyard land with great terroir and giving more spice and personality to the blend with Petit Verdot has given the wines much more polish from the 2015 vintage on. As has shifting to organic viticulture, plot-by-plot picking and a gravity-fed winery with dozens of vats so that batches can be kept separate.

An equally impressive overachiever is Château Clerc Milon, purchased by Mouton Rothschild in 1970 for a reported paltry one million francs. Baron Philippe reconstituted the vineyard and increased the amount of new oak. Eventually his daughter, Baroness Philippine, reinvented the estate with an elegant new cellar in 2011 and installed the brilliant winemaker Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy (who has now taken over at Mouton).

Interestingly, Carmenère grapes form a tiny part of the blend. A second wine, Pastourelle, was unveiled in 2016, starting with the 2009 vintage, and a vertical tasting then revealed how much the grand vin had improved. But the first vintage that stunned me was the powerful, smooth, seamless 2016 – a tour de force at a price below rivals such as Château Lynch-Bages.

St-Estèphe

This remote appellation north of Pauillac, with no first growths and fewer crus classés than any other commune, used to feel like the middle of nowhere, and the wines – fiercely tannic, concentrated and often rustic – took decades before you could drink them.

But climate change, precision viticulture and up-to-date winemaking have meant grapes ripen more readily, and tamed tannins. New owners are streaming in, making St-Estèphe prime territory for quickly rising reputations. The two second growths, Châteaux Montrose and Cos d’Estournel, are aiming for first growth quality with ever-increasing prices, while third growth Calon Ségur, under new ownership since 2012, is turning out stunners that are a comparative bargain.

My first rising star is canary-yellow Château Lafon-Rochet, the lone fourth growth and the first estate on the Left Bank to woo legendary Jean-Claude Berrouet (formerly at Petrus) as a consultant. With no chemical pesticides or herbicides in the vineyards and two new cellars, the wines now have more personality, finesse and balance, frequently outscoring famous names.

But the most thrilling value is among crus bourgeois and unclassified châteaux, many owned by more prestigious properties. Château Capbern, for example, has the same owner as Calon Ségur. Long known for offering terrific value, the wine now has more purity, definition and finer structure after a serious programme of renovation and more Merlot in the blend.

Similarly, Château Lilian Ladouys (recently named a cru bourgeois exceptionnel) benefits from the same team and owner as Pauillac’s Pédesclaux; investment, expertise and organic viticulture have resulted in more opulent, lush and spicy wines. In 2018, the family purchased additional vineyards with top gravelly soils, so expect even better wines in the future.

There are many more names to look for, such as Château Phélan Ségur, whose character, complexity and consistency resembles that of a fifth growth, while Château Meyney is often mistaken in blind tastings for Montrose.

The moral of the story: Bordeaux wines are better than ever and offer some of the best value around – if you know where to look.

McCoy’s dozen: top-value Médoc wines

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Wine Legend: Seña 1997, Aconcagua, Chile

• Bottles produced 30,000
• Composition 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Carmenère
• Yield 35hl/ha
• Alcohol 13.5%
• Release price $60
• Price today £112

A legend because…

Robert Mondavi had a knack for forming distinguished joint ventures far from his native California. During his first trip to Chile in 1991, he met Eduardo Chadwick; the first vintage of their new label, Seña, was in 1995, a year before a comparable joint venture, Almaviva, was created by Concha y Toro and Mouton-Rothschild. However, the first wine from the dedicated Seña vineyard was not produced until 2001. From the beginning the wine showed a more European, indeed French influence and polish than Californian weight and brashness. Because of changes in the Mondavi wineries’ structure and ownership, Chadwick bought its 50% share in 2004.

Looking back

The first vintage of Errazuriz’s Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve Cabernet, arguably Chile’s first ‘icon’ wine, was in 1983, so the development of the Seña label was a natural progression. Viñedo Chadwick would follow in 1999. In 2004, Eduardo Chadwick organised a blind tasting in Berlin, pitching his Cabernets against the best-known versions from Europe, including Bordeaux first growths. Seña took an honourable second place to Viñedo Chadwick. Similar tastings would take place in Asia and New York, again with gratifying results. Chadwick’s aim was not just to promote his own wines, but to ally Chilean reds with some of the world’s most admired wines.

The vintage

The early part of the growing season was cool, but then it warmed up considerably. Before harvest there were alternating periods of heat and cool, foggy weather, which brought some concerns about rot. However, by the time of harvest the weather was dry, although heat spikes retarded maturation so that the harvest was not completed until mid-April. Yields were moderate because of drought conditions.

The terroir

The Seña vineyard was planted from 1998 and occupies 42ha on a hillside in Ocoa, Aconcagua – home to the Errazuriz estate. The site has been farmed biodynamically since 2005. However, the grapes for this vintage were sourced from various parcels, the oldest vines being 26 years old.

The wine

The handpicked grapes were fermented at moderate temperatures in stainless steel tanks with pumpovers. For this vintage the winemakers were Irene Paiva and Edward Flaherty. The wine was aged in 43% new barriques for 16 months, as the team wasn’t aiming for a conspicuously oaky style. Later vintages were given longer ageing in entirely new French oak. The 1997 was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère, although by 2004 some Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot had been added to the blend.

The reaction

James Molesworth, in Wine Spectator, assessed the wine in 2000: ‘High-toned, stylish Cab that’s robed in cedar, mineral, smoke, iron and currant flavours. It’s plush yet sophisticated, and the structure is finely grained… showing more elegance than previous vintages of Seña.’

In 2012, The Wine Advocate’s Neal Martin said: ‘The 1997 Seña… is endowed with more fruit concentration [than the 1996], with baked black cherries, strawberry, orange peel and dried tobacco that attest to a warmer vintage… plenty of mocha-tinged black fruit with a crisp acidic bite on the finish, although it does not have great length or authority. The nose is showing better than the palate here.’

Putting it into the context of a vertical tasting, Martin added: ‘While I understand that older vintages have their share of plaudits, I discerned more complexity and vitality as well as finer integration of oak on newer vintages, as if more thought had gone into the wines. The result can be seen in the wines themselves, in particular the outstanding 2010.’

In 2018, Jancis Robinson noted: ‘Dark blackish garnet. Very mellow mature nose. Warm and welcoming with only the freshness of Carmenère on the palate suggesting Chilean origins. Finishes a little suddenly but very correct and refreshing.’

See all Wine Legends here

As results for the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards near – due on 22 September on Decanter.com – a look back at the 2019 results highlights Pinot Noir’s improving quality and continued potential.

DWWA 2020 Regional Chairs Peter Richards MW and Paz Levinson look to Chile and Argentina for ever-improving quality and a continuous exploration of terroir. Where red varieties such as Malbec, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon thrive, there is still room for discovery, and Pinot Noir is just coming into its own.

Peter Richards MW, returning DWWA 2020 Regional Chair for Chile comments, ‘Chile is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exciting wine scenes on the planet right now. It’s almost impossible to keep pace with the burgeoning diversity and quality – that’s what makes it exciting to judge and catch up on at DWWA.’

‘Progress isn’t always linear, though’ continues Richards. ‘Pinot Noir is a grape that everyone got excited about before realising how hard it was to make really well. Only now, after a couple of decades of serious Pinot ambition, are we starting to see world class examples emerging. But how exciting they are…’

On Argentina, Paz Levinson, new DWWA 2020 Regional Chair for Argentina says, ‘What I love about Argentina is the unique character that the wines have. I love the creativity of the winemakers, their curiosity and endless explorations.

‘We don’t have a tradition that imposes a unique style, so we are quite free to explore what the terroirs of Argentina can give. Today we can identify different terroirs while tasting and have a deep understanding of the great wines Argentina is making, and at very competitive prices.’

Read more: DWWA 2020 Interview with Paz Levinson on Argentina

The 17th Decanter World Wine Awards judging month highlights

Ahead of judging at DWWA Levinson adds, ‘This is a very special year. It is not only challenging for the judges, but also for the wines. I’m looking forward to tasting all of the wines that have been stored over some extra months; this will give roundness and balance to many of them. For Argentina this will be beneficial.’

Results for the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards, including Pinot Noir from Chile and Argentina, will be available on Decanter.com from 22 September.

DWWA 2019: Top Pinot Noir wines from Argentina and Chile

Condeminal, Poncho Pampa Crianza, Tupungato, Argentina 2018

96 points, Gold

N/A UK #condeminal

Tobacco, earthy and floral nose with flavours of ripe red fruits, forest floor and resinous herbs. Fairly resolved for how young it is, with chalky tannins and refreshing acidity. Great development potential. Brilliant wine! Alc 13.5%

Undurraga, Trama, San Antonio, Chile 2016

96 points, Gold

POA Hallgarten Wines

Now this is special! herbs. The palate is perfectly pitched, boasting a core of vibrant energy, simultaneously crunchy and gently bittersweet. Food-friendly with great potential for development. Alc 13.5%

Casablanca, Nimbus Single Vineyard, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2016

95 points, Gold

N/A UK www.casablancawinery.com

Seductive aromatics of wild herb, toasty warm spice and sappy red fruit lead to a palate dressed with elegant summer fruit and a pristine acidity. Alc 14%

Cono Sur, Ocio, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2016

94 points, Silver

£42 Penistone Wine Cellars

Opulent and inviting with notes of coffee, raspberry compote and toast, while bittersweet red fruit and pepper shape the palate. Alc 13.9%

Apaltagua, Colección Limited Edition, San Antonio, Chile 2017

91 points, Silver

£17.95 (2016) Waddesdon Wines

Heady with opulent bramble, red rose floral notes and woodsmoke on the nose, spiced vanilla and plump dark cherry on the palate. Alc 14%

Atamisque, Serbal, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina 2018

91 points, Silver

£14.55-£15.90 Christopher Piper, Drinkmonger, Fortnum & Mason, Jaded Palates, Master of Malt, Speciality Drinks, Starmore Boss, Taste Argentina, Vegan Wine Box

Vibrant red fruits and red flowers jump out of the glass, followed by juicy sweet fruit on the palate – cranberry, pomegranate, raspberry and strawberry. Long, aciddriven finish. Very drinkable. Alc 13.5%

Casas del Bosque, Gran Reserva, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2017

91 points, Silver

£16.80 ABS Wine Agencies

Shows plush, sappy redcurrant and raspberry aromatics, while the bittersweet red-fruit palate is framed with a bright, neat acidity. Alc 13.7%

Marks & Spencer, Tierra Y Hombre, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2018

91 points, Silver

£7 Marks & Spencer

Herbaceous and lifted, with leafy herb-tinged red fruit and resin leading to a palate filled with crunchy fruit and heady smoke. Alc 13.5%

Salentein, Finca La Pampa Lot Series Barrel Selected, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2017

91 points, Silver

N/A UK www.bodegasalentein.com

High-quality oak is apparent on the nose and is well integrated on the palate which explodes with cherries, strawberries and cranberries, followed by a long, sweet, vinous finish. Alc 13.5%

DWWA 2019: 90-point Pinot Noir from Argentina & Chile

Alto de Casablanca, Ritual, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2017

90 points, Silver

£14.50-£16 Elicite, Oddbins, Soho Wine Supply

Lifted and inviting aromatics of darktoned cherry and lifted florals, while the bright palate is brimming with smooth red berries. Alc 13.5%

Cono Sur, 20 Barrels El Triángulo Estate, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2017

90 points, Silver

£16 Ocado, Tesco

Heady with perfumed layers of bold, dark raspberry and lifted herbal aromas, while the savoury palate is laced with fresh, juicy fruit. Alc 14.3%

Errazuriz, Aconcagua Costa, Aconcagua Valley, Chile 2017

90 points, Silver

£16-£18 Banstead Vintners, Cheers, Dulwich Vintners, Kingsgate Wines, The Oxford Wine Co

Delicate and restrained aromas of red cherry, woodsmoke and lush strawberry lead through to a crunchy, bittersweet summer-fruit palate. Alc 13.5%

Falernia, Gran Reserva, Elqui Valley, Chile 2017

90 points, Silver

N/A UK www.falernia.com

Sappy, with earthy redcurrant and hot cherry fruit on the nose, dried floral notes, while the smoky palate is laced with tense sour cherry. Alc 14%

Familia Schroeder, Saurus Select, Patagonia, Argentina 2018

90 points, Silver

£15.65-£19.99 Exel, Liquorice, Taurus Wines

Streaming with red fruits – strawberry, cherry and cranberry – with a focused acid backbone and crunchy texture. Very rich, tasty and enjoyable. Alc 14%

Morrisons, Single Vineyard, Aconcagua Valley, Chile 2015

90 points, Silver

£10 Morrisons

Heady, lifted aromas of herbal red summer fruit lead on to a savoury palate that’s underpinned by fresh, cleansing acidity. Alc 13.5%

Ventisquero, Herú, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2016

90 points, Silver

£23.99 Soho Wine Supply

Sophisticated aromatics of baked cherry and pepper, softly spiced palate with bright high-toned raspberry. Alc 13.5%

See all results from DWWA 2019

What difference do stems, oak barrels, hang time, farming strategies and fermentation temperature actually make to the wine in our glass?

These are not questions that we ask very often in Bordeaux – a region where the image pushed by the châteaux is of tradition, history and continuity, and where vintage is fetishised over winemaker impact.

How Bordeaux wine styles can change: Scroll down for tasting notes of Troplong Mondot, Clerc Milon and Carmes Haut-Brion wines

Even wine consultants, who spend a few days a month at most at an estate, are often accorded greater respect in terms of wine style than the owner, technical director and viticultural team.

A few months ago, I was asked to give the annual André Simon lecture to the International Wine and Food Society, the group that Simon founded in 1933 and now counts 6,500 members worldwide.

As you might expect, what was an in-person talk to a group arriving in Bordeaux in late April evolved into a cameraman arriving at my house in early July to shoot a video that will be distributed online, I believe, next month.

The topic is on terroir in Bordeaux, and whether there even is such a thing at all.

One of the conclusions that I come to (spoiler alert) is that we should be happy to admit that terroir is about more than simply an immutable hunk of earth – more, in other words, than just soils, subsoils and microclimate.

The romantic idea of terroir as an unchanging slice of earth ignores the reality that it is a managed ecosystem – which means somebody is making a host of decisions about what to do with all of the different elements, and taking deliberate actions in viticulture and winemaking that affect the final wine in the glass.

To illustrate this point, I have taken three estates from different parts of Bordeaux that have undergone significant changes over the past 15 years, and compared their wines (or rather their winemaking methods) from 2001 and 2017.

Two of those estates – Châteaux Troplong Mondot and Carmes Haut-Brion – have had changes of owners in that time. The other, Château Clerc Milon, has kept the same owner but had a new winemaking team and a new approach in both vineyard and cellar.

I have picked two vintages that are relatively similar to take at least one variable out of this comparison. I couldn’t go any older than 2017 because that was the year Troplong Mondot ushered in its new style, so I looked to find another vintage that has a similarly sculpted feel to it; 2001.

I could also easily have picked three St-Emilion estates to illustrate the idea of nature or nurture. Pavie, Valandraud, Gracia, Le Dome… all of these wines have scaled back in recent years, keeping their signature but making choices that have discernable impact in the glass and therefore are useful signposts for illustrating the human influence on terroir.

I chose one estate from each of St-Emilion, Pessac-Léognan and Pauillac simply to widen the lens.

Château Troplong Mondot, St-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé B

Ownership: In 2017, the Valette-Pariente family sold up to SCOR insurance, which had been shareholders since 2014. It was promoted from Grand Cru Classé to Premier Grand Cru Classé in 2006.

Although associated with the garagiste movement, Troplong Mondot is far from a new estate, and has a history that dates back to the 17^th century. It was originally called Pavie Mondot, until it was owned by a Raymond Troplong in the 19^th century.

The estate sits on one of the highest points of St-Emilion with its iconic clay-limestone hillock known as the Butte du Mondot, described beautifully by Bernard Ginestet as a camel’s hump for the way that it sticks up above the surrounding limestone plateau.

This is an estate that fully embraced the overwrought, powerful style of late 1990s and 2000s in St-Emilion. I thought it was all about winemaking choices before I visited and started to understand just how strong a personality this site has, but it can still illustrate perfectly the tightrope between nature and nurture that is quality, modern winemaking.

The compacted soil of the butte, with its high percentage of clay, makes the wines powerful and concentrated. This is especially true in hot years, when water stress leads to small berries, something that is underlined by the former practice of severe pruning and green harvesting to lower yields.

Winemaking techniques were then employed to add to this sense of concentration and power.

As the pendulum swung away from that style, changes that were already underway were given a turbo boost with the arrival of Aymeric de Gironde from Cos d’Estournel as director, appointed by new owners SCOR in 2017. There was also a change in consultant, from Michel Rolland to Thomas Duclos.

Harvest dates were brought forward, ageing in new oak was cut from 90% to 65%, blending was brought to the beginning of ageing, there was experimentation with whole-bunch vinification – albeit not more than 10%, and not every year – and temperatures were lowered for the vinification.

Yields were also raised up to 45 hectolitres (hl) per hectare (ha), lowering the ratio of solids to juice and ensuring a fresher feel in the resulting wine.

Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan

Owner: Sold by the Chantecaille-Furt family in 2011 to property developer Patrice Pichet.

With the highest percentage of Cabernet Franc on the Left Bank, Carmes Haut-Brion has shown imagination and innovation in dealing with one of the most pressing issues facing Bordeaux wine, namely the impact of rising temperatures.

As such, it illustrates how winemaking decisions are an integral part of what we understand as terroir.

This is a walled ‘clos’ estate located close to the city centre of Bordeaux (in fact the only one with a 33000 central Bordeaux postcode), close to Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. The three estates shared the same owner for much of the 16^th century.

The Chantecaille-Furt family arrived in 1840 and stayed until 2011. Daniel Furt was responsible for putting an emphasis on Cabernet Franc, harnessing the potential of the gravel, clay and sandy soils in the vineyard.

The family also introduced organic farming from 2009. It was only in 2011, however, that Cabernet Franc became the dominant grape. Today, plantings stand at 45% Cabernet Franc, 30% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon – with some ungrafted vines.

An equally important change came in 2012, with the arrival of director Guillaume Pouthier, who had been working with Michel Chapoutier in the Rhône Valley.

He used his experience in the Rhône to introduce using stems in winemaking from his first vintage – a highly unusual technique in Bordeaux but common in the Rhône.

The 2012 vintage saw just 10% stems, used from the older Cabernet Franc vines, with percentages increasing ever since to 25% in 2013, 40% in 2017 and 55% in 2019.

The process involves two sorting lines to separate the bunches of grapes from the beginning according to the ripeness of their stems. The ‘good’ red or brown stems are selected for use.

Bunches with green stems, in contrast, are put through the usual destemming machine and used simply as berries.

The two – whole bunch and destemmed berries – are then layered back together for the fermentation, put into the vat in a series of around 15cm bands, one on top of the other.

‘In warm vintages I can go right up to 70% for Cabernet Franc and Merlots,’ says Pouthier, ‘but never more than 10-15% in Cabernet Sauvignon, because there is naturally a higher degree of green notes in the stems.

‘You have to be aware to then follow this throughout the process, ensuring gentle infusion rather than pumping over or punching down, to avoid adding too many tannins and any caricature flavours.

‘It’s not a simple choice, but it has the huge benefit of not only giving salinity and definition, but in bringing down potential alcohol levels from the moment of picking, often by 1% or more.’

Château Clerc Milon, Pauillac

Owners: The Rothschild family since 1970, first Baron Philippe then Baroness Philippine and now Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild and Julien Beaumarchais de Rothschild.

No question that the Rothschilds have invested seriously in this estate since their arrival in 1970. But it remained for several decades in the shadow of Mouton Rothschild, and was looked after by the same technical team, overseen by Jean-Paul Polaert, as Château d’Armailhac.

This shared team continued right up to 2009, and inevitably meant that decisions were taken according to the needs of both properties, rather than simply those of Clerc Milon itself.

More of an issue, perhaps, was that right up until 2006 the wine at Clerc Milon was being made in 225hl tanks.

It meant that even though five red grape varieties were present in the vineyard, only the three major ones – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc – were used in the main wine.

The other two, Carménère and Petit Verdot, were not able to be vinified separately and instead were put together with the last-picked Cabernet Sauvignon and co-fermented in the larger vats. If this didn’t make it into the first wine, the juice would be sold as generic Pauillac.

After upgrading the vat room in 2007, the team was able to vinify all grapes separately in smaller vats.

This prompted some experimentation, until the creation of a dedicated team under Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, who arrived from Opus One in 2009. It was only at this point that Carménère and Petit Verdot made a regular appearance in the main wine and began to shape Clerc Milon’s current personality.

There is texture, colour and spice added by Petit Verdot, and white pepper and florality from Carménère, the latter drawn from some of the oldest vines in Bordeaux, dating back to 1947.

In the vineyard, the main focus was on encouraging greater organic matter and driving the roots deeper – corrective issues that had arisen from extensive use of added fertilisers up until 2009.

Further vineyard work (and purchasing) saw a more coherent approach to rootstocks, clonal and massal selections and plot layouts.

‘The vineyard was divided into 300 plots up until 2009, often tiny in size and spread out,’ says Danjoy.

‘It made them extremely difficult to follow, particularly because they often had different genetic material in similar terroir, so you could have two Merlots next to each other in similar terroir but with different rootstocks, from different parent plants with very different ripening needs.

‘You needed essentially to vinify everything separately and to taste each individual plot – something that without a dedicated team was just not possible.

‘We had many highly successful vintages because this is great terroir, but the difference today is clear, with a richness and precision that has blossomed from a greater attention to detail.’

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Bordeaux may be a Merlot-Cabernet-centric region, but a smattering of other red varieties subsist alongside. Look at the figures: Merlot accounts for 66% of the region’s red plantings, Cabernet Sauvignon 22% and Cabernet Franc 9%, leaving a meagre 3% of ‘other red varieties’. For these read: Carmenère, Malbec and Petit Verdot. While not exactly household names – though still officially authorised and very much part of the region’s DNA – these three secondary varieties are belatedly stirring interest as growers rediscover their potential as a single variety or as a component in a blend.

All three varieties were very much in evidence in 18th- and 19th-century Bordeaux. Carmenère, a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Gros Cabernet, originated in the Gironde and was widely planted in the Médoc. Malbec (or Côt), originally from Cahors, was planted in Bordeaux from the mid-18^th century on. History relates it was cultivated at Château de Pressac in St-Emilion around 1747, hence the local name for Malbec, Pressac or Noir de Pressac, which still holds today.

Petit Verdot was initially thought to have come from the Gironde, but ampelographic (the field of botany concerned with the identification and classification of vines) and genetic research suggests provenance in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. How it settled in the Gironde is less clear, but its 19th-century reputation was definitively tied to Bordeaux and in particular the Médoc, which today still maintains over half the region’s plantings.

The total extent of the surface area for all three by the mid-19th century is unrecorded, but it was clearly significant: Carmenère and Petit Verdot used in Médoc blends, and Malbec gradually dominating on the Right Bank. Until the advent of phylloxera (in the late 1860s and the 1870s), for instance, Malbec represented 80% of plantings in the Côtes de Bourg.

Renewed interest

It was phylloxera that reduced the presence of all three of these secondary varieties in Bordeaux, and the 1956 frost further decimated Malbec. Vines were destroyed and growers were averse to replanting them due to the difficulties they pose in cultivation. Carmenère is low-fruiting and susceptible to coulure (poor fruit set) so has irregular yields. Petit Verdot is naturally productive and has shoots and stems that break easily, so it needs plenty of work and attention in the vineyard; like Carmenère, it is also late-ripening. Malbec initially proved difficult when grafted on to American rootstock, is over-productive and sensitive to coulure.

The nadir of this was seen in the CIVB (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux) figures for 2000, which show total plantings in the region of just 4ha Carmenère, 375ha Petit Verdot and 966ha Malbec. These have since increased respectively to 56ha, 1,093ha and 1,791ha in 2018, so clearly growers have found motivation to plant again. Global warming has helped considerably in their newfound popularity, as have improved viticultural techniques and new clones and rootstocks.

Carmenère is still the most marginal of the three. Its low yields and difficulty in ripening fully make it the least attractive. ‘It has the same growing cycle as Cabernet Sauvignon up to véraison (the period when berries begin to ripen), but from then on the maturity is protracted so it stays vegetal much longer,’ explains Christophe Capdeville, general manager of Margaux second growth Château Brane-Cantenac. The estate replanted the variety in 2007 but it has only been used in the grand vin in 2011, 2015 and 2016, and then up to a maximum of 1% of the blend.

As a single variety it lacks distinction, but growers who cultivate Carmenère agree that if fully ripe it can add a little pep to a blend. ‘It offers an exotic, spicy note,’ says Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, manager of Pauillac fifth growth Château Clerc Milon. The estate has an old parcel that was planted in 1947. Back at Château Brane-Cantenac, Capdeville appreciates ‘the silky tannins, which add something to the texture of the palate’. Plantings of Carmenère remain discreet and mainly Left Bank-oriented but there are exceptions. Châteaux de Fonbel and de Pressac in St-Emilion cultivate a little, as does Château de Bouillerot in the Entre-Deux-Mers.

Positive influences

The other Médoc-leaning variety is Petit Verdot. Its attributes include colour, acidity, sugar potential and tannin. It is also resistant to downy mildew, a positive factor in 2018. On the negative side, it is naturally high-yielding, awkward to cultivate, late-ripening and sensitive to powdery mildew and rot. In the past this would have been a turn-off for growers, but improved viticultural practices and global warming now make the difficulties surmountable.

Low yields are compulsory, with producers today aware that 40hl/ha is the ceiling. ‘The key to quality is the yield,’ says Sabrina Pernet, technical director at Margaux third growth Château Palmer. Each year the Petit Verdot is reduced down to 25-35hl/ha via an extensive green harvest, a procedure introduced in the early part of the new millennium.

Other factors that have assisted with quality are the use of less vigorous rootstocks, planting on earlier-ripening sites with sufficient moisture to avoid stress, the use of better vine material and, of course, climate. The new millennium has generally seen warm to hot summers and clement weather during the harvesting period. ‘The vegetal element in Petit Verdot is no longer a problem,’ says Thierry Bos of Château de Bouillerot.

For most producers Petit Verdot is again seen as a blending component. It can enhance colour, power, density of structure and freshness, but is considered a little too rustic to use in large doses. ‘It’s a complementary grape variety that can reduce elegance if not handled carefully,’ confirms Philippe Bascaules, managing director of Château Margaux.

Contradicting this rule, Patrice de Bortoli of Château Moutte Blanc in Macau, Médoc, has been making the 100% Petit Verdot Moisin since 1994. It is indeed muscular but ages well. He has been joined by the Dubourdieu family of Château Reynon in Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux. This year they released a single-variety wine, Hommage à Denis Dubourdieu 2018, in memory of the late oenologist-winemaker and his appreciation of the variety.

Wines for today Malbec used to be planted throughout Bordeaux but eventually found its home on the Right Bank and in the Entre-Deux-Mers, where it can still be found today. With its large berries and bunches, it too can be high-yielding, so volume needs to be carefully managed. At the same time, it is also susceptible to coulure and rot. But as Bos points out: ‘It adapts well to clay-limestone soils and can deliver the sort of fresh, fruit-driven wines demanded by today’s market.’

At a glance:Carmenère, Malbec & Petit Verdot

Carmenère

Total plantings: 56ha

Flavour profile: Green bean if underripe; spice, exotic notes

Characteristics: Late-ripening, irregular production, low acidity, light but fine tannins

Application: Blends

Malbec

Total plantings: 1,791ha

Flavour profile: Fruity (dark fruit), floral

Characteristics: Productive, good colour and acidity, zesty fruit, structured

Application: Single variety, blends

Petit Verdot

Total plantings: 1,093ha

Flavour profile: Dark fruit, floral (violet), spice, pepper

Characteristics: Late-ripening, productive, deep colour, tannic power/structure, good acidity

Application: Blends, single variety

The Côtes de Bourg is once again at the forefront of promoting the variety. At the beginning of the new millennium just 5% of the appellation was planted to Malbec, but a number of internal initiatives have helped the figure rise to 10% or about 400ha. The grape variety can be found in blends or labelled as a single variety; the Côtes de Bourg a rare sub-regional or communal appellation where this is permitted. A regional joint venture with a vine nursery will also see two new qualitative clones available from 2021.

Plantings of Malbec in Bordeaux are a mix of old vine material, massal selection (propagating cuttings from existing vines, with the aim of preserving clonal diversity and quality) from the old vines and two or three commercial clones. Questioning the qualitative nature of the latter, David Barrault of Château Tire Pé in the Entre-Deux-Mers sourced his massal selection Malbec from old vines in Cahors when he planted the variety in 2002. The clay-limestone soils, planting density of 5,000 vines per hectare and yields of 40-50hl/ha have produced a benchmark fresh, floral style.

With the INAO (Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité) deliberating on the use of seven other grape varieties in Bordeaux (some distinctly non-Bordeaux), Barrault has already jumped the gun by planting two old and forgotten Bordeaux varieties, Castets and Mancin. Peppery and fresh with relatively low alcohol, they too could offer another perspective for the region.

The Merlot-Cabernet hegemony will take some shifting, but for savvy Bordeaux producers looking for an alternative expression, delving into the old grape varieties of the past could be the way to go.

Lawther’s pick: Bordeaux with a different accent

See also: What does Petit Verdot add to a wine? Ask Decanter 

Even oenology professors didn’t know what it was. In November 1994, a group of Chilean scientists accompanied French ampelographer (vine expert) Jean Michel Boursiquot through the vineyards of Carmen winery in Maipo Valley. When they stopped to inspect a plot of Merlot, Boursiquot uttered something no one was expecting: ‘This isn’t Merlot, it’s Carmenère.’ The Chileans looked at each other. ‘Carme what?’

At the time, it wasn’t as simple as picking up a smartphone and Googling the word. So after the vineyard inspection Philippo Pszczólkowski, an oenology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, returned to the faculty to look through his books. And there it was, in an old encyclopedia of wine grapes – the obscure variety of Carmenère.

Consider the context. In 1994, Chilean wine was beginning to make an impact in foreign markets thanks to its very attractive price-quality ratio. The Sideways effect was still to come, and Merlot was one of the star grapes. Following this discovery by Boursiquot, further investigation proved that what was believed to be a Merlot mutation – a kind of ‘Chilean Merlot’ – was in fact a much more obscure red grape that was common in Bordeaux until it practically disappeared after phylloxera. Chile was suddenly left without one of its best commercial weapons, so naturally the first reaction was one of alarm.

See Tapia’s picks: top 12 Chilean Carmenères

Luckily many saw the silver lining: that this was a good opportunity for Chile to showcase something of its own, a variety scarcely found in other parts of the world. ‘What we saw then was great enthusiasm,’ recalls Aurelio Montes, founder of Montes Wines and today president of Wines of Chile, the office that promotes Chilean wine to the world. ‘Many hectares of Carmenère were planted and other vineyards were purified, with the idea that this was our emblematic grape. But the truth is that there was more enthusiasm than knowledge. It was planted in some unsuitable sites and the results were not very well received.’

Specific conditions

One of the first lessons learned with Carmenère is that the grape requires very specific conditions. It needs enough water, so soils that retain water well are best. It also ripens very late (two to three weeks after Merlot) so it needs a lot of light and enough heat to mature, otherwise vegetal aromas tend to dominate, with the wine tasting more of salad than wine.

In the first decade after the discovery of Carmenère in Chile, dealing with this vegetal side was a major challenge. And the twin solutions to which winemakers resorted were the obvious ones: to use new wood, in any format; and over-ripening the grapes until all traces of ‘salad’ disappeared. The result was that Chilean Carmenère became rather sweet, with almost no freshness to it.

Happily, Carmenère has been given serious attention in recent years, both in the vineyard and in the winery. Today a new generation of Chilean Carmenère flourishes – fruitier, fresher and, above all, with a clearer identity.

Clos de Luz sources fruit for its Massal 1945, a Carmenère full of freshness and energy, from vines planted in 1945. The soil here in Almahue, in the Cachapoal Valley, is colluvial – of loose sand and stones – and doesn’t retain much water, but that’s not a problem says winemaker Felipe Uribe: ‘The vines are so old they regulate themselves.’

Since the first harvest in 2012, Uribe has been cutting the Carmenère bunches earlier. ‘We picked three to four weeks before our neighbours. Everyone thought we were crazy. But the earlier harvest caused us no problems. The site is warm, and ripeness is achieved very quickly. The mixture of old vines and earlier harvests give us a lot of fruit,’ Uribe says, adding that he has no problems with Carmenère’s vegetal side. ‘Actually, I like it, although I don’t want it to be the only aroma.’

To ensure the vegetal aspect doesn’t dominate, Uribe controls irrigation but waters the vines almost until harvest. He believes the more stressed the vine, the less photosynthesis it generates, so it fails to mature.

Starting early

Sebastián Labbé, head oenologist at Santa Rita, has a different theory. For his Floresta Carmenère he looked to another old vineyard, this time dating back 70 years, planted on a granite slope in Apalta – an area of Colchagua Valley that also enjoys a warm climate, with many hours of sun. ‘In the lower parts of the vineyard the water layer is closer to the roots and that’s why the plant never stops growing. On this hill, the water level drops early in the season, so the vine concentrates on ripening its fruit and the production of vegetal aromas stops,’ explains Labbé, as we walk among the old and thick trunks of Carmenère vines.

With his mind set on freshness, Labbé likes to start early. In a warm year like 2017, he cut the bunches in mid-February, while in colder years, such as 2018, the harvest was towards the end of that month. Both dates are completely unusual for Carmenère which, until perhaps only five years ago, was typically picked towards the end of April. ‘I like to taste the crisp fruit of grapes harvested early. If there is something vegetal, it doesn’t bother me, so long as the fruit flavours prevail.’ Labbe doesn’t age his wines in Bordeaux barrels (as was the norm in the past) but in larger foudres, which help preserve the purity of flavours obtained in the vineyard. Avoiding new oak and moving to larger ageing vessels are the new rules when it comes to ensuring that vibrant Chilean Carmenère fruit.

A new viewpoint

Rodrigo Zamorano, winemaker at Caliterra, shares the new way of looking at the variety: that some vegetal characters are nothing to be afraid of in the quest for freshness. ‘There is no reason to hide Carmenère’s vegetal side; it’s part of its identity,’ Zamorano asserts, as we climb to the highest part of the Caliterra vineyard in Colchagua. Here, on this steep granite hillside planted with Carmenère in 2004, we are surrounded by thorns – typical vegetation in a place where it rains very little. From this spot, Zamorano sources fruit for Pétreo, Caliterra’s top red (100% Carmenère).

These grapes haven’t always been destined for the most ambitious wine of the estate. The previous wisdom was that the high (400m) altitude and cold climate of this site called for a later harvest date, to ensure full ripeness. Yet the resulting wine wasn’t hitting the quality levels Zamorano was looking for, so the fruit was typically used in other wines. ‘But in March 2016 we went through the vineyard earlier and tasted the grapes. To our surprise, we realised there were almost no vegetal tones. We decided to harvest immediately,’ recalls Zamorano.

The influence of soil in these Colchagua vineyards seems to be the key. While granite dominates higher up, in the lower areas soils are rich in clay, retaining water and, according to Zamorano, influencing the vegetal aromas. ‘When we are ready to harvest Pétreo at this higher altitude, it’s pure fruit. Grapes in the lower vineyards still taste very green.’

But more fruit purity does not mean a lack of greenness. Zamorano explains that when they harvest the grapes for Pétreo there is a mixture of pyrazines and fruit flavours. ‘If you are obsessed with vegetal aromas you might think that everything has been ruined. In our experience those vegetal aromas remain, but they integrate in the middle of the fruit flavours. The best thing about harvesting earlier is that gives us very good acidity in a variety that is not supposed to have much.’

Radical departure

The result of all this work is a wine that will seem a radical departure for many wine drinkers who are familiar with the Chilean Carmenère of recent years. The palate, with its earthy, herbal and fruity tones, feels vibrant and tense. It’s a new take on the variety – one that harkens to the past, when winemakers weren’t afraid of Carmenère’s green side.

‘What we do now is more or less the same as we did when we first started, especially in the vineyard and with the harvest date,’ says Marcelo Retamal, winemaker at De Martino, during our discussion about the alcohol level of his Alto de Piedras 2015. Older vintages of this 100% Carmenère contained 12.5%abv, while this vintage sits at 13%.

De Martino was a Carmenère pioneer: the first producer in Chile to label a red wine with the name of the grape, but also among those who most enthusiastically embraced the trend of hyper-ripeness and abundant new wood. However, as of 2011, Retamal and his team decided to change the house style to favour more refreshing and fruity wines, harvesting earlier and using large foudres instead of new barrels. ‘Carmenère must have a herbal side because it is in its DNA. But when you plant it in places that are not suitable, the greenness can be too much,’ eplains Retamal.

The refreshing and charmingly fruity Alto de Piedras 2015 comes from a vineyard of about 30 years old, planted on mainly alluvial soils. However, there’s also some clay, which Retamal says helps the vines retain the right amount of water. The result is a wine that is not only refreshing, but also seductively delicate – something not often found in this variety.

So, with this new style of Carmenère firmly established, can it become the emblem for Chilean wine? ‘Yes, I believe that Carmenère is having its moment,’ says Aurelio Montes. ‘There are very good examples being made now and we have learned a lot about how to get the best from the variety. However, I think the dominance of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon is very difficult to overcome.’ That’s probably true; the presence of Cabernet is monumental in Chile. But this trend towards fresher, fruiter Carmenère is likely to attract the attention of wine lovers once again – no longer an obscure, unloved French grape but but now truly a characterful Chilean native.

Patricio Tapia is a regular Decanter contributor and the author of the annual Descorchados guide to the wines of South America

See Tapia’s picks: top 12 Chilean Carmenères

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89 wines tasted, 2 wines Outstanding, 11 wines Highly Recommended

The tasters: Alistair Cooper MW, Peter Richards MW, Dirceu Vianna Junior MW

Scroll down to see the scores and tasting notes

The verdict

First, the context. This tasting comes hot on the heels of one of the most disappointing Chilean panel tastings of recent times (Sauvignon Blanc, October 2018 issue). With that precedent, these results are stellar. But perhaps it’s more instructive to look at the last Carmenère tasting (October 2017) where the results were marginally better than here. In that light, this outcome was less encouraging.

So what’s going on with Chilean Carmenère? In short, it’s a mixed bag. One feeling that emerged from the 2017 tasting was cautious optimism: Carmenère was clearly evolving, but not quite reaching the top notes. Not much has changed. ‘Carmenère’s a work in progress,’ commented Alistair Cooper MW. And Dirceu Vianna Junior MW remarked: ‘There were some nice wines, and decent consistency, but there are better things in Chile: Pinot Noir for one.’

The headline numbers are solid but not stellar. Incidentally, the balance in 2017 was fairly similar, though four wines were Outstanding and 23 Highly Recommended out of 129.

One striking outcome this year was the re-emergence of Colchagua and Cachapoal (in particular, its Peumo sub-region) as quality hotspots for Carmenère – the 2017 tasting had been headlined by the likes of Maipo and Maule. Rapel, which includes Colchagua and Cachapoal, is Carmenère’s heatland in Chile but has suffered in recent times from excesses of ripeness, alcohol, extraction and oak.

While it’s fair to note that Rapel accounted for 64% of all wines submitted to this tasting, it’s still heartening to see these areas producing wines of more poise, sophistication and character at the top end. Cooper noted how the best Peumo wines were ‘beautiful, with a delightful tannin structure’.

In terms of vintages, 2016 performed better than expected at the top end. The best wines here were characterful and engaging – though it’s also true to say that the lesser 2016s proved hollow and lacklustre. Some 2017s from the south showed signs of smoke taint from wildfires. Of late, Chile has suffered a run of challenging vintages, but on this evidence the best producers and sites can and do rise to the challenge.

Carmenère is often known as a blending variety and these styles worked well. ‘In blends, the other variety seems to magnify its personality,’ enthused Vianna. ‘The most ambitious Carmenère works best in partnership with something else.’ Cooper, meanwhile, was ‘increasingly impressed by single-varietal Carmenère’, but also noted the likes of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Carignan as good blending partners.

Beyond blending, almost all of the top-scoring wines had some element of deft oak maturation. This works well for Carmenère, fleshing out the mid-palate and adding complexity – though care needs to be taken not to overdo things. Faulty bottles were too common for comfort, with oxidation and brettanomyces frequent issues, and the odd wine over-acidified, so these should all be areas of focus.

Excessive alcohol was the downfall of many wines, as was a lack of varietal character. Often these are the result of poor decisions in the vineyard, particularly regarding harvest timing. The best Carmenères are all about character and balance – but achieving this needs hard work in both the vineyard and winery. The work goes on.

The scores

89 wines tasted

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release Carmenère wines (85% minimum) priced at £10 and above in the UK

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 2

Highly Recommended 11

Recommended 51

Commended 23

Fair 1

Poor 0

Faulty 1

The judges

Alistair Cooper MW

Following several years working for wineries in Chile and Argentina, Cooper moved back to the UK in 2006. A Master of Wine since 2017, he now consults, judges, educates and hosts events in both the UK and Chile, also writing for publications including Decanter, Meininger’s and Drinks International.

Peter Richards MW

Richards is an award- winning broadcaster and writer, with more than a decade on BBC1 television and four books including The Wines of Chile and his own Chile Wine Brief. He is the DWWA Regional Chair for Chile and, together with his wife Susie Barrie MW, co-hosts the annual Wine Festival Winchester.

Dirceu Vianna Junior MW

Originally from Brazil, Vianna studied forest engineering and law, before moving to London, where he began to work in the wine trade in 1990. In 2008, he became the first South American male to obtain the title of Master of Wine. He is now working as a wine writer, educator, technical consultant and competition judge.

About Chilean Carmenère

Whisper it, but Chilean Carmenère may be at risk of having its thunder stolen. Its modern moment in the limelight came in 1994, when French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot identified it in what was supposed to be a pure Merlot vineyard. Until that point it had largely flown under the radar while giving Chilean ‘Merlot’ its distinctive character. And then, suddenly, it was outed – and a new category of Chilean wine was created, one that has been developing ever since. The variety is now the fifth most widely planted in Chile.

The spotlight on the Chilean vineyard continues, however – and it seems there will be more such varieties emerging. Particularly in Chile’s historic south, where a research project recently identified more than 60 ‘uncommon’ grape varieties growing in Bío Bío, including 26 previously unrecorded elsewhere in the world. ‘It’s a tower of Babel on the shores of the Bío Bío!’ memorably commented local grower Juan José Ledesma.

Exciting prospects

Not bad for a wine nation long renowned for its steady, mainstream image. In this sense, Carmenère’s identification can be seen as a turning point – a moment when the country’s winemakers began a gradual pivot towards the exigencies and identities of their own vineyards rather than the demands of the market.

Because Carmenère, of course, has few international precedents outside Chile. Sure, there’s a fair bit knocking around in China and Italy, as well as odds and sods in North America, Argentina, Australia and of course its historic home in Bordeaux and southwest France. (The variety is closely related to Cabernet Franc and was long prized in Bordeaux but fell out of favour after phylloxera.)

It’s a rare international wine that majors on Carmenère and it boasts few centres of expertise, so Chile assumed this mantle by default. Ever since, it’s made steady progress, with recent Chilean studies on terroir and clones yielding valuable data while the winemakers involved have felt their way with what is a tricky variety.

Carmenère is a late-season variety that needs warmth but not excessive heat, as well as soils that are well drained but not too fertile. If harvested unripe, Carmenère can be virulently green; if overripe, its acidity plummets and it swiftly loses its hallmark herbal, leafy character. High yields and careless winemaking can be catastrophic; rainy autumns or poor vintages can be calamitous.

No wonder De Martino winemaker Marcelo Retamal terms it ‘the most difficult variety to make in Chile’, which may be in need of ‘a generational change to understand it properly’.

Such work continues apace – and deservedly so, because the glimpses of brilliance already afforded by the very best Carmenère (both solo and in blends) are tremendously exciting. The warm Rapel region (Colchagua and Cachapoal) remains Carmenère’s centre of gravity in Chile, though the likes of Maipo, Curicè and Maule are all capable of making excellent examples. Expect the Carmenère map to expand further in future, as forward-thinking wine-growers push back frontiers in the mountains and coast as well as north and south. Thunder or not, the Carmenère narrative continues.

Chilean Carmenère: the facts

Chilean vineyard 137,375ha

Chilean Carmenère vineyard 10,503ha

Carmenère as % of national vineyard 7.7%

Growth over 10 years (2006-2016) +47%

Growth over 5 years (2011-2016) +5%

Production in 2018 77.5m litres

Key regions Colchagua, Maule, Cachapoal, Curicó, Maipo Sources: Ministry of Agriculture, Origo

Chilean Carmenère: know your vintages

2018 Relatively cool, late season gave naturally fresher reds, though some late-season varieties like Carmenère struggled to ripen fully, hence variability.

2017 Heatwaves and wildfires beset one of the earliest, lowest-yielding vintages of modern times. Beware smoke taint, otherwise Carmenère coped okay.

2016 ‘Disastrous’, said one winemaker, as torrential April rain hit a slow-maturing vintage – Carmenère was one of the worst-hit varieties (yet decent wines have been made).

2015 Warm weather gave generous styles, often very good, though some producers went OTT with ripeness and extraction.

2014 Carmenère was one of the high points after devastating spring frosts hit cooler areas, but the season ended benignly: concentrated yet precise wines.

See all of the wines tasted here

The top scorers in the tasting:

See all of the wines tasted here

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Trentino is a thin wine region sandwiched between Valpolicella to the south and Alto Adige to the north.

There is little doubt that its potential is far from being fully realised, though there are two stellar estates here. Foradori specialises in wines from local varieties such as Teroldego, while Tenuta San Leonardo is firmly in the international variety camp.

There are also good sparkling wines being made by established firms like Ferrari, but Trentino production is dominated by large cooperatives. Some good wines are made, but not in sufficient quantities to put the region on the map.

• Scroll down to see Stephen Brook’s San Leonardo vertical tasting

Tenuta San Leonardo at a glance

• Estate 25 hectares; organic since 2015
• Owner Marchesi Guerrieri Gonzaga
• Consultant winemaker Carlo Ferrini
• Production 300,000 bottles
• Main wines San Leonardo (65,000 bottles), Villa Gresti (15,000 bottles)
• Typical blend for flagship San Leonardo wine: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with Carmènere, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Article continues beneath the wines

Stephen Brook’s Tenuta San Leonardo vertical tasting

The following vintages were tasted in 2016: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2010. The rest were tasted in late 2017.

History

San Leonardo is a noble estate that was in the hands of the Gresti family until 1894, and in the 19th century they provided wines such as Riesling and ‘Borgogna’ (likely a Burgundy type red blend) to the Austrian court under the name of Château St Leonard.

In 1894, Marchese Guerrieri Gonzaga married into the family and took over running the estate. His son Anselmo renovated the property, and after his death the present owner, Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga, inherited it in 1974.

Carlo was no amateur, having studied oenology at Lausanne in Switzerland and worked in the early 1960s with his relative Mario Incisa at San Guido in Bolgheri, Tuscany. But in those days the Incisa estate was just two hectares and its most famous wine, Sassicaia, hadn’t even been born. As there was no space for him at San Leonardo, Carlo remained in Tuscany for eight years.

At that time, San Leonardo was a polycultural estate, but parts of the property had been sold, and on Anselmo’s death, taxes required the sale of about half the property. So despite the noble history, the Guerrieri Gonzagas had been tightening their belts. Carlo was keen to invest in San Leonardo, and took a job at a cousin’s cement business to earn the money that would allow him to do so.

Hallmark elegance

As at San Guido, there was a distinct French influence at San Leonardo. The main varieties were Merlot and Cabernet Franc, although subsequently it became clear that much of the latter was in fact Carmenere. Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings were brought in from France, and on the recommendation of Piero Antinori, head of the Tuscan wine dynasty, Giacomo Tachis was hired as a consultant and helped to create the discreet, elegant style that is the hallmark of San Leonardo. Another constant presence here is Luigino Tinelli, who was born on the estate and has been its general manager since the 1970s.

Today the consultant winemaker is Carlo Ferrini from Tuscany, who replaced the ageing Tachis in 2000. A year later Marchese Carlo’s son Anselmo came back to help run San Leonardo after his father fell ill. Anselmo admits: ‘There have been some difficult times here, and I won’t pretend the period when I came back to help run the estate was easy, with my father pulling in one direction, and I pushing in another. And we were slow to develop our marketing in tune with the age of social media. But today my father and I work well together and have found the right balance, and I respect him hugely for having stuck to his vision.

‘He never wanted to make big, concentrated, oaky wines, even when they were all the rage and scored top points from the Italian wine guides. He can be stubborn but he has been true to his stylistic signature.’

Marchese Carlo showed me around the estate in a rickety jeep. Tall and lean, he exudes an urbane charm. We started from the sprawling estate buildings alongside the valley road. The offices and winery are here, and some workers’ apartments; there is a chapel with remarkable 12th-century frescoes. In the courtyard are shelters for a fleet of estate Fiat 500s, painted gaudily in camouflage tones, as well as a collection of ancient working tractors. Behind, there is a children’s playground, a donkey enclosure, rabbit hutch and other child-friendly animals. Clearly the estate is paternalistic in the very best sense.

Some vineyards are planted on fairly flat land near the buildings, while others climb the slopes towards the woodlands. Hidden within them by a small park is the 19th-century Villa Gresti, a capacious if not especially attractive mansion. Surprisingly, a substantial part of the vineyard is planted on pergola, a high-trained system not usually associated with wines of fine quality. Much of the Carmènere is here.

Singular style

Marchese Carlo explains: ‘We’ve always had Carmènere, but we used to believe it was Cabernet Franc. We wanted to plant more and bought some vines from a nursery in France. The berries were smaller than our old vines, and it was then that we realised those original vines were in fact Carmènere. It’s a variety that produces almost nothing on Guyot trellising, but gives reasonable yields on pergola, where the canes are longer. We can get Carmènere fully ripe at 13% potential alcohol, though our wines aren’t as powerful as most Chilean ones.’

‘We’ve persisted with Carmènere as it’s the fingerprint of San Leonardo,’ adds Anselmo. It’s the variety that’s linked to our land. It has a strong character that somehow combines elegance with a slight rusticity.’

There are two principal red wines here: San Leonardo itself, from 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with Carmènere, Cabernet Franc and Merlot; and Villa Gresti, first made in 2000 – a blend of Merlot with 10% to 15% Carmènere. San Leonardo is not made in mediocre vintages.

The grapes are sorted and destemmed, then fermented in cement tanks using indigenous yeasts. It is aged for some 10 months in cement tanks, in partly new barriques for 18 to 24 months, and then in bottle for 20 months. Villa Gresti spends up to 14 months in barriques.

In their youth these wines can be shy, even austere. This is largely due to the climate: here in the lower stretches of the Alps, nights can be very cool and this diurnal range preserves acidity. At the same time a warm wind blows in each afternoon from nearby Lake Garda. ‘This gives us a special microclimate that results in our wines showing both freshness and ripeness,’ explains Marchese Carlo. ‘But it does mean they need time in bottle to become approachable.’ With bottle age they emerge as being among Italy’s most elegant wines.

There were fears that when Carlo Ferrini came on board the style might change, as his wines (he consults to many top names: Barone Ricasoli, Castello di Fonterutoli, Poliziano, Principe Corsini…) usually have more opulence and flamboyance than San Leonardo’s. But he agreed to retain the existing style, and though the wines of the past 15 years do seem a bit fleshier than older vintages, that may also have much to do with climate change.

In 2007 and 2010 the estate produced a pure Carmènere, which is vinified in the same way as the other red wines. And there are two white wines: a Sauvignon Blanc called Vette was introduced in 2012, made from purchased fruit from growers around Rovereto further north; and a Riesling with grapes from northern Trentino, first made in 2013. Anselmo would like to add a spumante to the range, but this is still at the discussion stage.

Standard-bearer

Anselmo seems to find it frustrating that Trentino as a whole is less quality-oriented than San Leonardo and a very small number of other private estates. ‘The average vineyard holding here is 1.5ha, so growers are reliant on the co-ops buying their fruit. We have good co-ops here. They make excellent everyday wines but few outstanding wines.

‘Alto Adige to the north of us has wonderful wines that fetch good prices, with high quality driven by village co-ops, but the same isn’t really true here. As every grower needs to be rewarded, there’s little incentive to push up quality. Yet the potential here is amazing: we have beautiful soils, clean water, and a perfect climate with warm days and cool nights. But Trentino is little known, and that holds it back.’

Nonetheless, the Guerrieri Gonzagas have refused to allow standards to slip and, stylistically, the whites are surely a nod to the crystalline wines from Alto Adige. Tenuta San Leonardo and Villa Gresti are unflinching tributes to the vision of the family over generations, and to the terroir of the estate. Despite the wines’ reserve and somewhat austere style in their youth, they deserve their places as Italian classics.

Profile originally published in 2016 and new wine ratings added in March 2018.

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• Decanter travel guide: Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

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Just a few decades on since it was first formally recognised in Chile's vineyards, Carmenere is still asking a lot of questions of the country's wine growers. Peter Richards MW assesses the progress of this enigmatic grape variety

Carmenere in Chile

Area planted (2015) 10,861ha

Percentage of overall Chilean vineyard 8%

Growth in plantings (2005-2015) +58%

Volume produced (2016) 61.2 million litres

Preferred soil types Well-drained with low to moderate fertility

Best-suited climate Warm with moderating influences and a long ripening season

Top producers Caliterra, Carmen, Casa Silva, Concha y Toro, De Martino, Errázuriz, Falernia, J Bouchon, Lapostolle, Pérez Cruz, Tamaya, Terranoble, Undurraga, Ventisquero

• Scroll down to see wine reviews

In October 2011, a seminal event took place. Held in London, it was a vertical tasting of De Martino’s iconic Carmenere, going back to its very first vintage: 1996. Unexpectedly, the event turned into something of a confessional. Long-term winemaker Marcelo Retamal virtually bared his soul as the elegant early wines veered into super-ripe, powerhouse proportions before the 2010 vintage signalled a return to freshness and purity. ‘I was in a dark place in my winemaking,’ admitted an evidently chastened Retamal at one stage.

Co-owner Sebastian De Martino focused on the bigger picture: ‘The different styles reflect our ambition to discover what we stand for as wine producers. These Carmeneres illustrate the search for our identity.’ Retamal added: ‘More than a tasting of Carmenere, this represents the evolution of the Chilean wine industry. It’s a process; we’ve been learning. Now we see the right way to go.’

Carmenere, it’s fair to say, is a grape variety that provokes a reaction. Often such reactions are conflicted or polarised. Some love it; some hate it; some remain unmoved. In Chile, there are winemakers who consider it at best a bit-part player, good for blending only; others argue strongly that it can stand alone as a terroir-specific, truly noble variety; there are those who say Carmenere can do both. Where most people agree is that Chilean Carmenere remains a work in progress – a fascinating story still in the telling.

Carmenere’s unique history is part of the reason for this. For many years, the variety – closely related to Cabernet Franc – was prized in southwest France, particularly bordeaux, for its deep colour, distinctive aromas and roundness of structure. but then it performed an astonishing vanishing act.

Lost identity

On the one hand, Carmenere almost disappeared from bordeaux after phylloxera struck in the late-19th century. Desperate growers were reluctant to replant a late- ripening variety prone to unreliable yields. In the meantime, it had been planted elsewhere in the wine-growing world, from northern Italy to China. Newly wealthy Chileans, enriched by a commodities boom, had come to bordeaux in the mid-19th century in search of vines to improve their wines back home, and Carmenere was popular among them. In all these locations, for various obscure reasons, Carmenere somehow got lost in the varietal mix. In Italy, it became known as Black Bordeaux or Old Cabernet, in China as Cabernet Gernischt or Shelongzhu, and in Chile as Merlot (or Merlot Chileno).

The big reveal didn’t come until 1994. French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot was visiting Chile and was invited to inspect a Merlot vineyard owned by Viña Carmen. ‘I wasn’t at all expecting what happened next,’ explains Boursiquot, who immediately recognised that the vineyard wasn’t Merlot. ‘The problem was identifying what it was: it only took me one or two minutes, but it seemed like an eternity.’

Fellow French ampelographer Claude Valat had previously noticed that the Chilean Merlot vineyard wasn’t entirely pure, but Boursiquot’s inspired identification, subsequently proven via DNA analysis, led to much of Chile’s Merlot vineyard being reclassified as Carmenere – a process that remains ongoing. Apart from anything else, it provided a rationale as to why Chilean ‘Merlot’ had proved so distinctive.

Work in progress

The interim years, as the De Martino tasting so starkly showed, have seen much debate and applied research. Some wanted to champion Carmenere as a rallying point for Chilean producers: a distinctive variety to be prioritised akin to Argentina’s Malbec. Others urged caution, research and an accent on diversity rather than primacy. It’s the latter argument that has largely won out and, slowly, a diverse range of styles is starting to emerge from across the country, both in blends and single-varietal wines. Results have been mixed, as is the nature of any learning curve, but the trajectory of Chilean Carmenere is certainly an intriguing one.

‘We Chileans tend to hyperventilate easily,’ muses Rodrigo Soto, head winemaker at Veramonte, referring to a cultural obsession with novelty, symptomatic of which was the initial championing of Carmenere, swiftly followed by a procession of other trendy varieties including Syrah, Carignan and País. ‘We need to be wiser,’ he says, ‘and to understand where real quality and character come from: experience, confidence, good viticultural practices – and time.’

The insistence on the virtues of time and patience with Carmenere is a common theme. Soto notes how old vines (and thus responsible viticulture) are needed to produce the best wines. Tamaya owner René Merino insists: ‘Carmenere is still a work in progress – 21 vintages is not enough in wine years to say we have mastered it.’ He notes that the ‘biggest challenge is still in the vineyard’ – in other words, understanding where Carmenere works best and why, and then how to coax the best wine from it. ‘I believe Carmenere is the most difficult variety to make in Chile,’ ponders Retamal. ‘It may take a generational change to understand it properly.’

Branching out

For some time in Chile, it seemed as if there were only two stylistic paradigms for Carmenere. One was unripe and virulently green. The other was rich, opulent, buxom: a wine of outrageous curves and bountiful splendours. Nowadays, that picture is becoming increasingly nuanced as we see Carmeneres majoring on natural scent, complexity and tension, rather than being harvested unripe or relying on contrived heft. There is more varietal character in evidence and less overt winemaking intervention such as heavy extraction or new oak.

Crucial within this evolutionary process has been the focus on terroir.

Take climate. Initially, it was assumed that, because Carmenere is a naturally late-ripening variety, it needed the warmest sites. Yet these, especially in warm vintages, can produce excessively alcoholic, overripe styles. Now, wine-growers tend to seek out warm climates but with moderating influences, in order to retain freshness and varietal purity while minimising the risk of late-season rain.

One example of this is Casa Silva’s Los Lingues estate in the foothills of the Andes, wherein Colchagua’s warm climate is tempered by cooling mountain breezes, producing naturally balanced wines. ‘If you plant in the right place like Los Lingues, you can get Carmenere that is both ripe and fresh, with the spicy aromas and flavours that are part of its DNA,’ comments Mario Pablo Silva.

Similarly, much debate has centred on the correct soils for Carmenere. The original thinking was that deep alluvial soils on valley floors worked best: for good drainage but with some clay helping to retain moisture, enabling the vines to continue functioning until late in the season. Yet some excellent Carmeneres are now emerging from decidedly different soil types all across the country, including thin, degraded granitic soils on hillsides. This is boosting diversity and challenging preconceptions in most welcome fashion. The one consensus is that Carmenere doesn’t work in fertile soils, which produce excessive canopies and unripe fruit. Beyond this, it’s all to play for. ‘With Carmenere, you can get great wine off a great site, but for other sites it’s just not worth it – there’s no point forcing nature,’ says Concha y Toro’s Marcelo Papa.

All to play for

Colchagua and Cachapoal remain the heartlands for Carmenere in Chile, but this picture looks set to diversify as the likes of Maipo, Aconcagua, Limarí and Elqui to the north, and Curicó and Maule to the south all make successful Carmenere in a range of styles. Given Chile’s naturally prolific diversity of soils and climates, it’s just as much about individual sites and growers’ approaches as it is the broader regions.

A similar logic applies to the blending versus solo varietal argument. If Carmenere can be said to have two key natural states, they would be either a leafy, refreshing and restrained style, or the one (more commonly found) that errs on the side of plushness, succulence and inky dark fruit. Both renditions, some winemakers argue, benefit from blending – either to flesh things out or to provide backbone and structure – with Cabernet Sauvignon being the most common blending partner, but the likes of Syrah, Merlot and even País and Carignan also providing effective complements.

Others maintain that Carmenere can stand alone – and there are already some great Chilean wines in existence to demonstrate this – but that its true potential will only become clear as the variety continues to be better understood.

Time will tell. As Retamal comments: ‘When it comes to Carmenere, you can’t rule anything out.’ In the meantime, Carmenere can be enjoyed in an increasingly impressive range of styles and formats – one conclusion from the 2016 Decanter World Wine Awards (of which I am Regional Chair for Chile) was that Carmenere is producing better and more consistent wines, across a range of styles, than it ever has before.

One thing’s for sure: given the intriguing twists and turns in its history to date, it’s a brave drinker who considers Carmenere’s future easily predictable.

Richards’ pick of Chilean Carmenere:

Bordeaux Chateau Brane Cantenac is using Carmenere in its Grand Vin for the first time, the result of climate change, owner Henri Lurton said.

Although almost never used in Bordeaux, Carmenere is a sixth variety allowed under appellation rules. It was widely-planted in the Medoc in the 19th century, and regarded as a mainstay of claret, but it is difficult to ripen and prone to disease and its popularity waned.

Henri Lurton told Decanter.com there used to be Carmenere at the Margaux second growth but it was pulled it up in the mid-1990s as it never achieved full ripeness.

‘Then in 2006 our young Chilean intern, shocked we had no Carmenere when the variety originated here, invigorated us to research the grape. We discovered it was a grape which truly needs a lot of heat and sunshine, and in the light of global warming, decided to replant it on the best, well-exposed terroir on the plateau de Brane in front of the chateau.’

They replanted half a hectare in 2007 (a fraction of the 75ha total vineyard) and did not plan on using it in the 2011 vintage, but the summer weather, marked by fluctuations in temperature but on average very warm, allowed the Carmenere to ripen well.

‘We harvested the Carmenere three weeks later than our last Cabernet parcels in order to avoid the vegetal character that it usually displays when harvested too early,’ Lurton said.

The wine contains a tiny amount of the grape – 0.5% – but according to Christophe Capdeville, operations manager at Brane, it adds ‘zing’ and personality.

‘If one is patient and gives it all the necessary care, this varietal can give wines with lots of color, lots of aromas of exotic fruit rather than the usual red or black fruit. It also adds an impression of sweetness in the mouth and grainy tannins like corduroy, rather than velvet.’

He added, ‘Since this is one of the six historical varietals in Marguax, given global warming I thought it essential to reintroduce.’

Written by Marisa D’Vari

The dramatic Apalta Valley is one of Chile's newest regions to produce quality wines, especially from Syrah and Carmenère. MONTY WALDIN meets the top producers.

Chile’s Apalta Valley is the kind of new wine region every wine-producing country needs to emerge periodically in order to challenge the status quo. Traditionalists maintain that Chile’s greatest red wines come from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grown in the lee of the snow-capped Andes. Not so with the Apalta Valley, which lies among Chile’s warmer, scrub-coated Pacific hills where grapes such as Syrah and Carmenère prosper. Apalta Valley has fewer than 800ha (hectares) of vineyards, out of a Chilean total of 100,000ha, but unusually nearly 50% of its vines are at least 30 years old.

More on the Apalta Valley

The valley itself is a half-moon shaped cul-de-sac between the towns of Santa Cruz de Colchagua and San Fernando. Apalta Valley wines are labelled under the Colchagua Valley denomination, which is part of Chile’s Central Valley. The first major winery along the road running west from San Fernando towards the Pacific is Casa Lapostolle. This is co-owned by two familes: the French Marnier-Lapostolle family, who produce the Grand Marnier liqueur and the Chilean Rabat family, whose vineyards are among Apalta Valley’s oldest.

‘Wine is one of a number of crops farmed here,’ explains Casa Lapostolle’s French winemaker Michel Friou as he paces among vines planted in the 1940s and points to pear, apple and plum orchards, fields of maize, vegetables and livestock. ‘Even though the vines were old and unirrigated, which is uncommon for this part of Chile, nobody knew world-class wines could be made here.’

https://www.decanter.com/features/on-the-road-with-rolland-248210/

Until 1994 that is, when the Rabat family’s Apalta vineyards and winery were renovated under the guidance of Michel Rolland, the globetrotting, Bordeaux-based winemaker. Rolland is renowned for his opaque, blockbuster reds overlaid with overt influences of new oak barrels, and Casa Lapostolle’s flagship Apalta Valley wine Clos Apalta is true to form.

‘The grapes for Clos Apalta always come from our estate vineyard in Apalta Valley,’ says Michel Friou, ‘but its character changes slightly each year according to the vintage conditions.’ Fewer than 40,000 bottles of Clos Apalta are produced each year, and the most appealing and typical recent vintage, 1997, contained a dash of Malbec with near-equal proportions of Merlot and Carmenère.

The Wines

Other wines from Casa Lapostolle’s 120ha Apalta Valley vineyard include the Cuvées Alexandre Merlot and Alexandre Cabernet Sauvignon, although grapes from elsewhere in Chile or from third-party growers may also be included. Some vintages of Cuvée Alexandre Merlot (the 2000, for example) and Cuvée Alexandre Cabernet Sauvignon (1999) outstrip Clos Apalta for finesse, if not concentration.

Equally concentrated wines are made by experienced Chilean winemaker Aurelio Montes who co-owns Viña Montes – which owns 110ha of Apalta vines – with three Chilean wine professionals. They decided to plant Syrah on the hills surrounding the Apalta Valley floor in the early 1990s. The resultant wine is called ‘Montes Folly’ because, as Montes explains: ‘Some of our neighbours thought we were crazy to plant Syrah, which had not been tried here before, and crazy to plant on the hills, some of which must be worked by hand rather than by tractor.’

Montes Folly sets a benchmark for Chilean Syrah in terms of concentration. The 2000 vintage produced 9,000 bottles and contains a challenging 14.8% alcohol. It shares some of the burnt, impenetrable characteristics of its Rhône alter-egos, Hermitage and Côte-Rotie.

Viña Montes makes another Syrah from Apalta Valley, the ‘Montes Alpha Santa Cruz, Apalta Vineyard Syrah’. The 2000 vintage contains 10% Cabernet Sauvignon with 90% Syrah and produced 70,000 bottles. Its level of alcohol (14.3%) is perhaps too forthright for the fruit, which seems subdued, although a heavy oak influence may also play its part.

Other varietal red wines from Apalta Valley in the Montes Alpha range include a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot. The Montes Alpha ‘M’, the Montes flagship wine, is blended along the lines of a Bordeaux Médoc, and contains Cabernet Sauvignon (80%), Merlot (10%) and Cabernet Franc, all from Apalta. The Cabernet elements dominate, and the aroma is full of eucalyptus, although this flavour is more usually associated with Cabernet Sauvignon grown further north in Maipo, Chile’s historic wine heartland.

Most of the wines mentioned so far are priced at the premium end of the market. Those looking for good everyday drinking should consider the Apaltagua range of red wines from Viñedos Donoso. The winery owns 60ha of Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Apalta Valley, the oldest of which date from 1945–1950. Donoso sold its grapes or the wine produced from them in bulk until 2000, when it produced its own wine. Alvaro Espinoza, former Viña Carmen winemaker, oversees the blending, while a New Zealander, Peter Mackey, carries out day-to-day winemaking.

Espinoza is Chile’s most vocal proponent of Carmenère, which was confused in Chile with Merlot until 1994. ‘Carmenère ripens later than Merlot and was often picked too early,’ he says. ‘But when it’s ripe it has better structure than Merlot, with fresher, darker fruit flavours and a wild note. To get Carmenère ripe, you must lower yields and pick at the right moment.’ Chile is the only country in the world promoting Carmenère, and Apaltagua’s varietal example shows why Espinoza’s confidence is justified: a bright, deep colour, a floral aroma and a refreshing palate with concentration and finesse. The Apaltagua Envero, a blend of two thirds Carmenère and one third Cabernet Sauvignon, ages in French oak with elegant fruit dominating. A prestige bottling called Grial is made from the oldest vines. ‘We called it Grial,’ says Espinoza, ‘because this means “grail” in Spanish. Our Holy Grail is to make the best Carmenère in Chile.’ The Apalta Valley suits the Carmenère grape, Espinoza feels. ‘The red clay soils found in parts of the valley encourage the Carmenère to ripen in a complex, but balanced, way.’ And Peter Mackey says: ‘I think the balance in the grapes can be attributed partly to the age of our vines but also to a reliable 7pm, northeasterly breeze which drops evening temperatures. This gives more “continental” ripening of warm days and long cool nights. The river Tinguiririca sends up thermals at night which also helps the vines recover from a scorching 35–40?C summer day heat.’

The success these producers have enjoyed in Apalta Valley has seen other wineries such as Viña Ventisquero and Viña Nuevo Mundo plant vineyards here recently, along with the likes of Viña Carmen. Carmen is owned by Viña Santa Rita, one of Chile’s ‘Big Four’ wineries, so perhaps Apalta Valley is no longer a challenger to Chile’s status quo, but is now part of it.

CONAL GREGORY MW investigates the Chilean speciality grape Carmenère and the exciting Bordeaux style wines that are now being created with it.

To the French who relocated to 19th-century Chile, the vine culture of Bordeaux was a familiar one. When they imported Bordeaux grapes to reinvigorate their new land, Carmenère would have been a natural choice, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Today, not only is Carmenère appreciated in its own right, it also helps to create complex blends that give Chile a distinctive Bordeaux style.

Spain was almost certainly the source of Chile’s original vineyards in the 1550s, yet it was not until 1830 that a more systematic approach to vine varieties was undertaken by the French scientist, Claude Gay. However, it was Silvestre 0chagavia who took the initiative 21 years later and imported the classic French varieties which set the firm foundations for today’s trade. Although they didn’t know it at the time, this vine shipment happened only years before the dreaded aphid phylloxera attacked the vineyards of Bordeaux and, by 1877, the direction of trade had reversed as Chile had the quality and stock to actually export wine to Bordeaux. Chile remains one of the few places where vines are directly planted without the need to graft and, as a result, vines are in economic production after just three years.

Carmenère was an integral part of Bordeaux’s pre-phylloxera success, yet when replanting took place to contain the aphid, low yields and poor fruit setting led to the variety falling out of favour, even though it was part of the Cabernet vitis vinifera family.On a visit to Chile in the early 1990s, Robert Mondavi and Eduardo Chadwick of Errazuriz thought they had discovered a distinct clone of Merlot with a greater intensity of flavour. In fact, it was Carmenère, planted randomly among Merlot grapes, and ampelographers only positively identified the vine seven years ago (its shoot tips are cottony with pinkish tones, while Merlot is white). Chile is unsure how much Carmenère exists in older vineyards as so much is integrated with Merlot. Officially it has raised its figures from 330 hectares (ha) in 1997 to 2,306ha in 1999 (the most recent data available), but this reflects only those vines that have been positively identified and many growers estimate that between 60–90% of ‘Merlot’ is actually Carmenère. In the past, much Carmenère was sold as Merlot, but now distinct plots are being created. The leaf has a denser formation and its grape size is larger. As a wine, it has an unripe, stalky aroma, not dissimilar to young Cabernet Sauvignon, while on the palate its low acidity and ripe smoky fruit character with a hint of spice make it instantly appealing.

Today, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, Carmenère is one of the four red varieties being actively planted. 0fficially the yield increased from 13,800 hectolitres (hl) to 26,6400hl between 1998 and 1999, while Merlot rose from 359,500hl to 386,200hl. By comparison, the coarse Pais (sometimes called Negra Peruana) is being uprooted. Most Carmenère is planted in the Rapel region, notably the Colchagua Valley. Carmenère can rarely be found in Bordeaux today (a tiny display row is cultivated at first growth Château Mouton-Rothschild), although it can occasionally be discovered growing in the Veneto region of north-east Italy. For Colli Euganei Rosso DOC it is blended with at least 60% Merlot and smaller parts Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the result is a stunning wine with real complexity that deserves a wider audience. So, Carmenère is effectively indigenous to Chile. Chilean producers increasingly recognise this and are releasing wines based on this single grape, as a unique selling point. The best producers hold off picking until May when the grapes are really ripe, yet this can produce a rather one-dimensional wine, although Chile has enjoyed great success blending it with Merlot. Such wines have an immediate fruity appeal with an underlying softness, sometimes slightly sweet, that makes them enjoyable both on their own or with lamb and beef dishes.

The potential is there for more complex and finer reds, akin, perhaps, to the 18th and early 19th-century ‘Bordeaux blends’. It will require mature vines, careful handling of smaller quantities at the winery, a greater willingness to use wood for longer periods and real blending skills but, with relatively low labour costs, Chile could challenge not only claret but the ’boutique’ wineries of New Zealand and the USA. Several synonyms are used for Carmenère: Carbouet, Carmenelle, Cabernelle, Grande Vidure (notably by the Carmen winery) and Grant Carmenet. While Merlot will continue to be significant in Chile, in the future Carmenère will become more important, predicts Mario Pablo Silva of Vina Casa Silva of Angostura near San Fernando, which won the coveted Top South American Producer award at the 2000 International Wine & Spirit Competition.

Casa Silva has Carmenère planted in three districts of Colchagua: 20ha at Los Lingues in the north on the foothills of the Andes, designed for ‘reserve’ quality; 5ha of 90-year old vines at Angostura; and 33ha at Lolol to the south of the valley, nearer the Pacific coast. It aims to use 250,000 litres of its 350,000 litres of Carmenère as a single-grape wine and blend the rest in three different ways: with 50% Merlot; in the Gran Reserva Quinta Generacion, with 52% Cabernet; and in the ultra-premium Altura (with 20% Merlot and 60% Cabernet). Although it has lower yields and more problems in the vineyard, Errazuriz feels Carmenère is superior to Merlot and has made new plantings in the coastal-influenced Aconcagua Valley. It also has a mixed plot with Merlot on more fertile loam clay in Curico, which enjoys a more continental climate.

The link between Chile and Bordeaux continues with Baron Philippe de Rothschild, which produces and markets wines with Concha y Toro. Under the Almaviva name (the main character in The Marriage of Figaro), a ‘Bordeaux blend’ has been created, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Separately, the first vintage (1999) of Rothschild’s Escudo Rojo, which uses Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and only 5% Merlot, has just been released. The grapes are bought in from growers, unlike the 40ha plot at Puente Alto for Almaviva, and Escudo Rojo enjoys one year’s maturation in French oak.

Julian Brind MW of Waitrose considers Carmenère ‘a favourite and great value for its quality’. The supermarket’s selection includes MontGras Carmenère Reserva (£5.99), which is 85% Carmenère blended with Cabernet Sauvignon from 60ha in the Colchagua Valley, and Valdivieso’s oddly named Caballo Loco no 4 (£14.99). The latter is a blend which uses up to 15% from a previous year’s blend, akin to the ‘solera’ system for sherry. Carmenère was included in the first three such blends, Pinot Noir was also in the first and Syrah will be in the fifth, to be launched this autumn. Philippe Debrus from Lyon, who worked at Simi in California and Kendall-Jackson in Chile, has been Valdivieso’s winemaker since 1995. Valdievso has also developed straight varietal wines and ‘barrel selection’ blends, where two to four-year-old oak barrels are used for up to eight months.

Veramonte sources its grapes from the coastal Casablanca Valley, which has a cool, Carneros-like climate. The Huneeus family behind the Veramonte label pioneered viticulture there in 1990. Its success with Primus, a stylish blend of 85% Carmenère and the balance of Cabernet Sauvignon, matured for one year in French and American oak, is marked. Agustin Huneeus calls Carmenère ‘the lost Bordeaux grape’ and says the vine is making ‘a strong comeback as a key blending component for premium wines’. Concha y Toro’s star winemaker is Ignacio Recabarren. He released its Terrunyo Carmenère 1998 last year – 80% Carmenère, 10% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, all sourced in the permeable poor soil of the Peumo Valley. At only 35 hectolitres per ha, the yield from 12-year old vines was more like a top quality claret. It was aged in 225-litre French oak barrels for one year and bottled without filtration. Santa Laura is not yet well known. Alejandro Hartwig was a grape farmer in the Colchagua Valley until six years ago, when he decided to vinify the top 15% of his production. His Carmenère is made from seven-year-old vines and is fermented in stainless steel and a quarter later fermented in French and American oak for four months.

Undurraga is the source of Tesco’s Carmenère, made by Hernan Amenabar. The firm was founded in 1885 and is based in the Maipo Valley. The concentration of summer sun and long dry season makes irrigation of this variety essential, according to Undurraga. Carmen can trace its foundation to Maipo in 1850 and is therefore Chile’s oldest producer, based on 53ha of French vines. Today it has a 45,000hl capacity. Carmenère has been one of its principal successes, created by Bordeaux-trained Alvaro Espinoza, who has also developed biodynamic viticulture. The Massenez family of Alsace owns Chateau Los Boldos in central Chile. While it is known for making eaux-de-vie, the 250ha estate near Requinoa in central Chile yields a blend – labelled ‘grand cru’ – of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, planted in 1948 and 1959 respectively.

Another link with France is the winery of William Fèvre, the noted Chablis producer, which produces 500,000 bottles from Pirque, 30km south of Santiago. Among the varieties cultivated here, you guessed it, Carmenère, which is made in small tanks that hold up to 7,000kg of grapes with ageing in American oak for nine months.

Canepa is one of the few producers to make two quality levels of Carmenère. The Winemaker’s Selection 2000 and the more complex Private Reserve 1998, which is made from non-irrigated vines with half the yield: 6,000kg per ha instead of 12,000kg. The 1998 also spent 14 months in small, French oak barrels.

STRAIGHT CARMENERE

Concha y Toro Terrunyo 1998 *****

Violet black intensity; cinnamon, nutmeg nose; smooth rich palate; light tannin. £11.99; WMN, Chv,

William Fèvre Gran Cuvée 1999 ****

Appealing green pepper nose; smokey fruit; keep two/three years. £8.50–9; HBJ

Anakena Reservado 2000 ****

Smokey, damson nose; rich, full-bodied, good length on palate. £7.99; Evy

Laura Hartwig 2000 ***

Nose of orange peel; mulberry fruit, spicy, light tannin palate. £7.99; PLB

Santa Rita Reserva 1999 ***

Violet black intensity; nose of unripe stalky fruit; tannic, young damson fruit on taste. £6.99; BWC

Aromo Reservado 2000 **

Plum red; light fruity nose; palate shows raspberries; short light style. £5; All

Casa Silva Reserva 1999 **

Young, stalky, fruity nose; smokey fruit, mid-tannins; keep two years. £8.50; NoG, Aus

BORDEAUX BLENDS

Veramonte Primus 1998 *****

Violet black; rich blackcurrant nose; palate of rich fruit with herbs and cedar; keep two years. £10; Stk

Casa Silva Quinta Generacion Gran Reserva 1999 ****

Merlot and Carmenère. Smokey mulberries on nose, lovely structure with good depth. Keep up to four years. £17.95; Ben, Aus

La Palmeria Gran Reserva 1999 ****

Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep red; vanilla and blackberry fruit on nose; vanilla, thyme, tannic fruit on taste.

£7.99; HWC

Montes 1999 ****

70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Carmenère. Stylish cedary, fruity nose; palate of autumn fruits; integrated wood tones; mid-length. £7.95; HWC

Rothschild Escudo Rojo 1999 ****

Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Violet black; promising rich fruity nose; silky depth

on palate, tannic; mid-length; keep three years. £8.99; Pgn

Santa Rita Floresta 1998 ****

Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Violet black; rich nose of violets and blackberries; blackberry palate with mid-tannins; good balance; keep three years. £8.99; Odd

Carmen Reserve 1998 ***

Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon. Bitter chocolate and mint nose; palate of unripe, stalky fruit with chocolate; keep three years. £7.41; Lay, StG

Carmen Winemaker’s Reserve 1997 ***

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Carmenère 20%, Petite Sirah 20%, Merlot 10%.

Nose of red fruits and mace; chocolate and tannic fruit; mid-length; keep four years. £7.41; Lay, StG

Château Los Boldos Grand Cru 1997 ***

Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot. Garnet red; dark chocolate, cedar nose; subtle fruity smokey palate with mid-tannins; keep three years. £20; HBJ

Rothschild Almaviva 1998 **

Deep rich blackcurrant; nose of ripe jammy fruit; soft, short, fruity taste; drink now. £47; Pgn