Carmenère: The Chilean wine born in a shirt and tie

Finally a 20-something you can take home to your parents.

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Serious wines are made slowly. They may rest on their lees, sit in a barrel, or age in the cellar, but they all develop complex, savoury flavours over a period of years.

This can make them easy to find, but difficult to buy. A 2014 Meursault or a 2010 Barolo are easy to identify as serious, but the price be difficult to justify. The ageing process that results in savoury complexity is quite simply a very expensive business. For a start, only the very best (and most valuble) grapes will have the intensity and acidity to last for 15-20 years. Then there’s the cost of the oak barrels, many of which will need to be replaced with each batch of wine. Finally, there’s the storage cost of keeping barrels and bottles in the cellar until they’re ready to drink. All of this can place a heavy premium on the kind of wines we might look for when trying to impress as a house-guest.

But if the process of making serious complex and savoury wines is so expensive, what are we to do when an occasion calls for a wine to impress? Enter Carmenère, the lost grape of Bordeaux, now making its home in Chile.

Carmenère is one a group of wines that contain Pyrazine compounds. LIST with family relations. These can taste very ‘green’ and unpleasant, but with the sun exposure tempering the cool climate of Chile, they can be at their very best!

Carmenère: paprika, bell pepper, peppercorn, and meat, often before ageing! (Comes out of the womb all grown up) Like most of us in middle-age, he likes barbecues. Bottom of the price range, already serious; young wine, already serious. And less tannic than a classic bordeaux savoury wine. Pair it with BBQ. Grilled meats. Herby salads.

The rarest of things: a 20-something you wouldn’t be ashamed to take home to your parents.

3 Bottles to Try:

De Martino: Legada Reserva 2020 - D.O. Valle de Maipo

Inama: Carminium 2021 - Colli Berici DOC

Tabali: Pedregoso Carmènere Gran Reserva 2022 - D.O. Valle de Cachapoal

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/products/de-martino-legado-carmenere-810929

https://8wines.com/wines/inama-carminium-2021

https://www.thegoodwineshop.co.uk/products/tabali-pedregoso-carmenere-gran-reserva