The return of Carmenere?

After a faltering start, Chilean winemakers now think they have Carmenere cracked and that it’s a variety that deserves a second look.

After its discovery in Chile in the mid 1990s, Carmenere was touted as Chile’s flagship grape before sliding back into near obscurity as consumers failed to warm to the green and stalky examples being trotted out.

Cabernet Sauvignon rose to greater prominence instead but now, with a better understanding of how to handle it, Carmenere is enjoying a revival.

“Carmenere is coming back,” Alejandro Wedeles, head winemaker for Viña Santa Carolina’s reserva and premium ranges, recently told the drinks business.

“At the beginning we were trying to much to make it the wine of Chile, the flagship but we were too young as an industry.

“Now we know better how to make it and what sort of wines we want to make. I think the quality of Carmenere now is better than it was five or six years ago.”

The chief change is to cease trying to treat Carmenere as either Merlot or Cabernet. It has been recognised that Carmenere needs warmer plots, well-drained soils and good canopy and crop management.

“For entry-level, high-level production it’s not going to work,” said Noelia Agulló, winemaker at Emiliana’s Los Robles Estate. “In the vineyard, we don’t overcharge the plants. You also have to remove leaves around berry set and later as you get closer to the harvest.”

The debate on picking remains however with some advocating a slightly earlier picking time and others a little later.

Leonardo Devoto, oenologist at Miguel Torres, suggested: “In the vineyard you have to treat it completely differently to Merlot. Merlot is one of the earliest varieties to pick, Carmenere should be one of the last – to help those green flavours lessen.”