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Viña Concha y Toro, Chile

Enjoying Carmenére Wine

2003-12-05

Here's a nice but shameless advertising plug for Viña Concha y Toro, one of the six fine producers of wine and spirits that I had occasion to visit.  I believe I was tasting a Carmenére wine, which is a recent addition to everyone's brands in Chile.

According to the tours, the Carmenére grapes are a French grape that had been wiped out in France and Europe by disease.  Everyone thought the Carmenére grapes were no more.  But unknown to anyone, the vines had been transported to Chile, but everyone thought they were another kind of grape.  So the Chileans were making a Malbec (or maybe Shiraz) wine that was different than normal, but no one figured it out until a European expert noticed something was wrong and identified the grape as the Carmenére. Now many of the vineyards grow the grape and Carmenére wine is being produced in bulk and is in the stores here in Canada now.