Cabernet Carmenere Wine
The cabernet carmenere wine is one of the original grapes of the Bordeaux region of France. This red grape has been producing great wine for hundreds of years. When it was planted in the Medoc valley, it produced seasons of excellent wines. But some of the newer carmenere cabernet reserve wines are no longer created in France. In fact, a large percentage of the carmenere in the world is produce in Chile. The Chilean coast has areas that are very similar to France and have been creating great carmenere reserve wine for many years.
When the carmere grape was produced in the Bordeaux region of France, it is was used to blend with other red wines such as Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon. This allowed these grapes to produce a wine full of aroma and complexity. This practice of blending the different grapes is common today and in the past. Some of the best characteristics of wines can be achieved by combining the different grapes today to produce the best wine. That is why some of the wines are labeled as blends or have other names that you may not have heard of. The labels will normally tell which grapes are included.
The Carmenere grape was initially called Grand Vidure and the name changed over the centuries as the grapes were grown in different area. But this grape and vine have had some problems and at the end of the 19th century an insect started affect the grapes. The insect feeds on the roots of the vines (filoxera) and caused a great amount of havoc in France, Spain and Italy. Therefore the variety was completely wiped out from the vineyards in Europe. But in the mean time, the vineyard plantations in South America had begun to produce some of these grapes. As early as the 16th century the different grapes were introduced by the Spaniard, French and Italian settlers that were arriving to the “new world”. It is thought that during this period that Carmenere arrived to Chile and was planted all over the vineyards. Carmenere was not wiped out in Chile since it was isolated from the filoxera and due to its different geography and climate from Europe.
The history of carmenere cabernet reserve gets even more interesting and was not rediscovered until 1993. In Chile, this grape variety had been confused by the locals for Merlot since some of the characteristics are very similar. Today, the grapes have been replanted across in many other countries around the world have experimental plantations of Carmenere. But Chile still has the majority of the production and has coined it as the national emblematic variety. The largest production in the world of cabernet Carmenere wine is located in Chile.
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