Yes, I'm from Santiago. What about you? Were you doing tourism when you came? Did you visit other places here?

Camenere was actually the grape that got me into wine. My first bottle was chono 06 and I fell in love. When I started to try some Bordeaux (usually with about 10% of cab franc) I saw the similarties and then wine became a more common thing in my place.

What can I say? I love the mouth feel. The nose on it is probably one of my favs.(mind I really just started gettting into wine the past year) I love the heavy dark berry play. Overall, I think its a nice varietal for other beginners to try out since usually its pretty easy to drink.(less tannins than other more popular ones out there)

I've had several Carmeneres (I worked at WineStyles for two years), and love them! Love the cherry & raspberry flavors. Terra Andina makes a great Reserve Carmenere. A wine distributor once told me that when phylloxera wiped out the French vineyards in the late 19th century, the French sent their Cabernet and Carmenere vines over to America to graft with our vines, which allowed them to replant and fight off the phylloxera. The Cabernet grafted well, and the Carmenere didn't, so the French didn't replant the Carmenere and it disappeared from France for 100 years. Some American vintners found it growing in Chile 20 years ago, but the Chileans thought it was Merlot, and had it interplanted with Merlot which ripened differently. Once they separated the vines, Carmenere came into its own. Great story–can anyone verify?!

Don't know about the grafting, but the last part of your story is very true.

That's pretty close as I understand it…The vine looks a lot like merlot, but the leaves change color, and it takes a couple of more weeks to ripen and should be harvested about the same time as the cab sauvignon. An ampelographer saw the differentiation in 1994 and had to go back through old texts to prove that it was Carmenere. I gather that it was always a finicky grape to grow in Bordeaux and so was passed over when the great grafting period ensued. I'm not sure how well the Carmenere grafts, but have heard that there is some growing in Washington and California now, and an Italian wine distributor I met says that there is some small amount growing in northeast Italy where it was mistaken for cab franc. This history of this grape is a great story, and its future may be bright as well. Interesting Cab, carmenere, syrah blends starting to appear, and last year's WS wine of the year Clos Apalta from Lapostolle was majority carmenere.

BTW. Laura: I've also tried that Terra Andina Reserva “Grande Vidure” (the other name for Carmenere). It was the 2007, a steal for 5 dollars here in Chile. Very well made.

I've had 3 or 4: Concho Y Toro Diablo 07 I liked.

QOTD: had one or two, the Santa Rita is good.

Thanks for the yucks, Gary. I enjoyed the dialog between the Chile and Chocolate characters.

QOTD: I've never had a straight Carmenere. I will try to find one, soon.

QOTD : 0 Sorry bub

QOTD: Over the past two years, I've had quite a few Carmeneres, 5-10+. While everyone is out trying trendy malbec, I prefer carmenere. Malbecs are too dark and heavy for my palate. I've had the Tamaya, CONCHA Y TORO CASILLERO DEL DIABLO, OOPS!, and I few others I can't recall the names. In the cellar I have, Rayun, Root 1, Santa Helena Carmenere Colchagua Valley Reserva, and Terranoble.

QOTD: I've tasted them, but they've never really hit my palate to the point where I've started buying them for myself.

I've probably had close to a dozen carmeneres. The one I've drank the most is the Terre Noble. My vote for the closest thing to drinking a bell pepper: Montes Alpha's Purple Angel.
Far and away the best Carmenere I've had is the 2004 Concho y Torro Terrunyo Carmenere. I've had it a few times and it's great. I'd never blind it for 100% carmenere. After trying it the first time and being very impressed, I discovered Parker called it the best Carmenere made in Chile.

concha y toro castillero del diablo carmenere 6 euro supermarket nice food wine period…

Mott is on with the #85! Newest episode and this one! You go Mott.

QOTD: I have had 2-3 carmeneres. I know the last two I had where given as christmas gifts. The other was at a tasting. I dont think I have ran across one that was very green. The one I had last year was very velvety in texture from what I recall.

Jason

Hermano, I hope that you and yours are OK. The AURA website says that Tololo is OK, so they must be fine up north unless they were in the Santiago for the weekend too. No word yet…

QOTD: Wow, just had a Carmenere for the first time this evening. Quite good.

Backstory: Jose, who brought the wine to the party, received news while we were tasting that everyone in his family are safe and sound in Chile, with only some slight damage to furniture and such after the earthquake.

Love the straight-up episodes. Thought this would've been a great opportunity to talk a bit more about the history of the grape and its history in Chile, but all the same, really enjoyed it.

QOTD: In the past 18 months I've had 3 Carmeneres (From Casa Silva, Casillero del Diablo & Echeverria) and 3 50:50 Cab Sauv / Carmenere blends (Arauco & Oveja Negra). Sadly, looking back over my TNs, I didn't really find a whole lot of love there. The Casillero del Diablo was good, as the whole range tends to be, but I find their Cab Sauv & Shiraz better. I should give the Echeverria another try I think. I had a Syrah/Carmenere blend of theirs that was excellent and exceptionally good value. But so far, it doesn't look like Carmenere is doing it for my palate!

Niiiiiiiiice Straight Forward Episode !!!!!

qotd: Can't remember ever having a Carmenere…..

Just a handful…attracted by the price, I am cheapskate…….20Dollarsomm.com

Being a wine buyer for a small store I'm starting to see more and more Carmenere's. I've tried a half dozen. I'm intrigued by their aromas which are often of roasted sausage or herbs. Good value play for most folks. !!

Had my first Carmenere about 8 years ago at a free Astor Wine tasting in NYC. I found it an interesting find then and have enjoyed a few bottles each year since. Now that it has found a market place I am seeing more selections on the shelf in the stores. If you live in NYC then check out a new store that specializes soley in Chilean products and it has a wine store attached that has a great selection of Chilean wines. Puro in SoHo. Small but unique so worth a look.

QOTD: A few years ago had my first Carmenere at Ibiza in Pittsburgh's S.Side. I was just getting into wine, but this was one of my AHA moments. It was on a tasting menu, served with 2nd course (Smoked Duck Breast), I don't remember the vintage but it was a Vina Santa Rita Single Vinyard. Simply amazing. The food was excellent, but the wine just awesome. I can remember just sitting back and thinking for minutes about the finish, cocao, minerality, fruit, just amazing. The rest of the dinner was actually ruined by how good that wine and pairing was. Got the waiter to bring the rest of the bottle out when we were done.

Constantly looking for new Carmeneres since then. Honestly, few have lived up to the initial experience, but many have been very good, and all have been good QPR's.

E

QOTD: I “discovered” the grape several years ago, really enjoy it and have probably had a dozen, maybe more. Really, for QPR, you can't beat it. Even the so-so ones were around $8 so who can complain?

QotD – it's late, and mind is sluggish right now, but Carmenere started coming onto our scene, around the same time I switched over to retail from distribution, 'round 97-98. I'd enjoyed the spice, and red merlot-like character of hte enry level offerings, which was most of what they'd opened te doors with. They (conservatively played) weren't gonna bust doors open on big investments/bottle w/ some 'new'thing' that noone'd ever heard much about. So, by the millenium, the one that I was really most impressed w/, overall was Calina -and if I'm not wrong, it was K-J's investment, and to support that type of product, was kinda anethema to my 'ideals', at the time, but I recall that I really liked that one, over the others. And THEN they dropped the price to crazy post-off prices, and the rest was, as they say, history!
Also, Veramonte's Primus blend depended/exploited it to widely varying percentages of theblend. Some were really good, other years… maybe not so much.