The rediscovery of Carménère is a fascinating story. While many different grape varieties have been brought back from obscurity in different periods of time, none have made such a fantastic reappearance as Carménère. Believed to be extinct for centuries, Carménère truly came back from the dead in a story of confused identity.
The story of Carmenere: The Bordeaux chapter
One of the traditional Bordeaux varieties, Carménère was very much the ugly duckling (along with Malbec) that fell out of favour. It would suffer easily from mildew and coulure and few winemakers paid much interest in the variety as it dwindled down to just a few hectares in Bordeaux – taken over by plantations of the far sexier sounding Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
When the Phylloxera louse attacked Bordeaux, Carménère was one of the most susceptible varieties and it was completely wiped out by the 20th century. No one really thought to replant it, and Carménère was considered extinct from there on, set to go down in history as simply unremarkable.
Carménère’s new beginning: The Chile Chapter
Unbeknownst to the world, Carménère had actually made its way to the shores of Chile a matter of decades before phylloxera hit Europe. The cuttings were brought with other Bordeaux cuttings and they were wrongly labelled as Merlot. This ‘Merlot’ was planted in Chile, and spawned many more vines across the country.
Chilean winemakers were always suspicious as to why their Merlot seemed so different to Merlot found in other countries, and as new Merlot cuttings came in from other parts of the world during the 20th century they renamed their older cuttings of Merlot as ‘Merlot Chileno’ (or Chilean Merlot). This Merlot Chileno would go a flaming red in the vineyard before Autumn and had quite a different character, although it was commonly thought to be just an adaption to the terroir rather than anything else.
It wasn’t until a French ampelographer made the discovery in 1994, purely by coincidence. Jean-Michel Boursiquot was visiting Chile on a work trip and visited a vineyard in Maipo during late November, as he was walking through the vineyard at Carmen winery he spotted the twisted stamens of this ‘Merlot Chileno’. The problem was that Merlot doesn’t have twisted stamens. He declared in front of the group that this was, in fact, Carménère.
Any disbelief and qualms were settled a couple months later after Boursiquot revealed the DNA tests that proved ‘Merlot Chileno’ had actually been the long lost variety of Carménère all along. Overnight Chile became the biggest Carménère producer in the world, although for many it was an unrequited love. It look years for Chile’s wineries to fully accept their new variety as their own (many still bottled it as Merlot for several years afterwards) however today it is seen as one of the most emblematic varieties to Chile – which is home to over 97% of the world’s Carménère.
Amanda Barnes has been writing about wine and travel since 2003. South America has been her home since 2009, but she is currently on a mission to unlock the world of wine by traveling Around the World in 80 Harvests!
