Let’s Celebrate Carménère, Chile’s Signature Grape!

The Carménère of today is a survivor. At the end of the 19th century, a blight destroyed the majority of Europe’s vineyards. In 1860, a small insect known as Phylloxera, or vine aphid, attacked the vineyards of France, Spain, and Italy, wiping out Carménère on the Old Continent.

Nothing more was known of Carménère for more than a century. This old grape variety, known initially as Grande Vidure, was thought to be extinct. Its disappearance meant the loss of one of the most important grapes in Bordeaux, used in the blends and responsible for producing aromatic, complex wines.

More than a century later, in 1994, a group of winemakers and French ampelographer, Jean-Michel Boursiquot noticed strange characteristics in some of Chile’s Merlot vines, particularly those that ripened much later. They were intrigued and studies ultimately proved that another variety had been hidden among the vines. They had rediscovered Carménère! They proved that some of this old variety had escaped the blight and was alive and well at the southern end of the world, protected by the mountains and the sea, in Chile.

Carménère is believed to have arrived in Chile with the dawn of viticulture in the 16th century. It took root in a country with a great climate and soils favorable to growing grapes, only to be reborn centuries later as a New World variety.

Carménère is now a part of Chile, the only country that produces and exports a significant quantity of this peculiar, unique, high quality variety. It’s food pairing is broad and versatile, from cheese to red meat or fowl with herb sauces, to pork, lamb, and spicy cuisines like curry or Thai cuisine.

Even today, its existence is rather magical and proud, with a little bit of mystery.