From Marcel Merz
, at 29. May 2011 06:12
Argentina has found a signature wine with the wildly popular malbec. For neighboring Chile, things have been less clear-cut.
The country has gained a reputation for good-value wines, despite efforts of some vintners to sell more expensive bottles. But no single wine type is associated with Chile.
Some have suggested that the country could make inroads with carmenere, a grape that originated in Bordeaux but now is grown almost exclusively in Chile.
I have my doubts. Carmenere is difficult to grow. It ripens late in the season, when rain is a threat, and not that much of it is planted. And cabernet sauvignon accounts for more than four times the vineyard acreage of carmenere.
Carmenere does have an interesting back story. For decades, much of the carmenere in Chile was thought to be merlot. But carmenere ripens much later than merlot, and when it’s picked too early, it has a strong green pepper flavor.
In many cases, the two varieties were planted side by side and picked together, which might explain why Chilean merlot used to be so green. The difference between the two varieties officially was recognized in 1996, although I suspect that some carmenere still slips into bottles of cheap Chilean merlot.
Even when carmenere is properly ripe, it tends to have a cracked peppercorn flavor that I find appealing, but isn’t for everyone. One longtime Chilean wine industry observer noted that carmenere has had 10 years or more to catch on, so why hasn’t it taken off like malbec?
Some good carmeneres are out there. Vintners have learned a lot about the best ways to grow it, but the variety is susceptible to vintage variation in years with early rains.
A good place to start is the 2008 Root 1 Carmenere ($12), which offers spicy aromas of cracked pepper and flavors of rich black cherry and pepper. For a little more money, the 2008 Montes Alpha Carmenere ($22) is dense, dark and spicy, with firm tannins.
It’s still tight but shows promise. The 2007 Montes Purple Angel ($70), mostly carmenere with a dollop of petit verdot, is savory and spicy, with concentrated, dark fruit, a note of black olive and a long finish. All three come from the Colchagua Valley.
There are also some blends in which carmenere plays an important role, although cabernet sauvignon usually is the star. For example, the 2008 Montes Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere ($14), which is more than two-thirds cabernet, is spicy and structured, with some plush black cherry wrapped around a sturdy core.
Which brings me to Chilean cabernet. It’s not sexy or trendy, like Argentine malbec. After all, cabernet grows all over the world — we certainly grow plenty of it in California. But Chilean cabernet grown on flatter, fertile sites can offer some really good value. And as vineyards move up the hillsides, quality is on the rise, too.
More modestly priced cabernets — around $10 a bottle — often carry a designation of “Valle Central” or Central Valley. Within that central valley, the most important regions are the Maipo Valley and Colchagua Valley.
Much of the Maipo has deep, fertile soils that are really better suited to fruit trees than to high-quality grapes. But planting of lower-yielding vineyards has migrated to the eastern edge of the valley, into the foothills of the Andes — the so-called Alto Maipo. This is where the grapes are grown for such well-known (and pricier) cabs and cab blends as Almaviva and Concha y Toro’s Don Melchor.
One good, reasonably priced cab from the Maipo is the smooth 2008 Cousino-Macul “Antiguas Reservas” Cabernet Sauvignon ($17) with its bright cherry fruit and fine tannins.
Colchagua has gotten a lot of press lately, especially the Apalta subregion, essentially an amphitheater of hillsides with a variety of slopes and exposures. It’s the site of some dramatic wineries, including Casa Lapostolle’s Clos Apalta and Montes’ Apalta winery, which produce equally dramatic, powerful wines.
Montes’ top wine, the 2006 Alpha “M” ($100) is a cabernet-dominant blend from Apalta’s slopes that’s big, dense and juicy, with ample black fruit, a note of roasted coffee and very firm tannins. The more affordable 2008 Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon ($22), also from the Apalta vineyard, is ripe and dense but less concentrated, with a note of cassis.
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