I’m currently, and luckily, on a Wines Of Chile tour of the country’s many regions and wineries.  I’m going to try and pop in with a few notes here and there, WiFi allowing, to pass on some of my experiences.  You can look forward to a round-up piece when I return the weekend of May 8th.

For now, enjoy theses tidbits:

Earlier today we visited the Carmen winery, and I knew we’d be tasting Carmenère at some point.

Here’s some things I already had in mind going in:

1. Carmen has always provided decent quality and value at great prices.

2. What many Chilean winemakers/growers had thought was Merlot throughout their entire wine history, turned out to be Carmenère – the 6th, “lost” Bordeaux varietal.  This was discovered sometime in the mid-nineties.

3. “Lost” because the French lost almost all of it to Phylloxera in the late-1860′s and assumed it was extinct.

4. In learning how to work with the grape, Many of Chile’s early efforts weren’t left to ripen too long or planted in improper soils or regions, resulting in green, stemmy efforts.

WELL!

The way you become more clear on all of this and tie it all together, is to have Carmen’s Winemaker, Sebastien Labbe L, drive you around his vineyards showing what grows well where, and what planting mistakes had been made in the past.  Then get him to explain how the scientists discovered, right at the Carmen winery in fact, that they and everyone else in Chile had indeed been growing and making wine with the long-coveted “lost”  6th Bordeaux varietal, thinking it was simply Merlot.

Cool stuff!

We then went inside and tried his Carmen 2008 Gran Reserva Carmenère.  The stuff wasn’t the least bit green, but more of a nice, lush mouthfeel with dark chocolate, cherries, dusty cocoa and an earthy, peppery finish.

Beautiful, beautiful juice.

The way Chile has adapted to how the grape needs to be cared for has benefited this varietal immensely.

The best part?

If you’re in BC, you can just head on down to the LDB and grab bottle straight off the shelf!

Leave a couple there for me though, ‘kay?