Chile seems like an endless source of affordable, high-quality wines, especially for international varietals like cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc, but many people associate Chile with the unique red called carmenere.
Carmenere has had a complicated history and remains somewhat misunderstood even now. It was first planted in the Medoc region of Bordeaux and is thought to be one of the region’s original red grapes. When old cuttings of carmenere were brought to Chile in the 1850s, they were mistaken for merlot, and while you might think such a mislabeling would quickly be recognized and rectified, it persisted until the 1994, when the grape’s secret identity was uncovered by a French researcher. Carmenere wasn’t officially recognized as a distinct variety until 1998.
Today in France, carmenere is almost nowhere to be found because it wasn’t replanted after a phylloxera outbreak devastated it in the mid-19th century. So while carmenere is still technically considered an international variety, Chile is its main home, and it has become one of the nation’s calling cards.
