When I smell Carmenere I am transported to another place. Such a distinct smell conjures up images of vineyards set at the base of enormous snowcapped mountains, meticulously manicured grape vines hand harvested when the fall arrives, old beat up bicycles leaning on grape trellising, and the most remarkably hard workers I have ever had the pleasure of laboring with. It is with great nostalgia then that I sip a glass of Carmenere that just arrived to the DW warehouse over the Cup Match holiday and briefly throw down a bit of prose on Chile, this weeks blog subject.
I was lucky enough to spend over a year in Chile making wine and traveling the majestic country from top to bottom, all the while, tasting as much as I could of one of Chile’s most important exports. I feel lucky that I got to spend so much time there seeing the beautiful mountains, rivers, beaches, lovely ladies…ahh yes, I left a bit of my heart in the small town of Santa Amalia, but I digress.
I have a certain association with Chile; I understand a bit of its identity, if you will. But I don’t think too many other people do. For example France conjures up generic images of the Eiffel Tower, or croissants or snotty French people even to someone who hasn’t been there. Italy just the same, think Italy and you think romantic hills of Tuscany or Roman architecture, easy identification even for those who have never set foot in Europe. Chile however, is not so identifiable. This gives France and Italy a leg up on marketing and selling wines. A marketer or a wine slinger like myself doesn’t have to give a little song and dance to get someone interested in a place like France. Even if they have never been, I don’t need to try too hard to give them an idea of the culture, the landscape, the architecture let alone why they should try the wines from that place. It’s already an understood that good wines come from France and Italy. Well, I ran across an article recently that discusses the struggle that Chile is having trying to promote its identity and how that translates to association with a wine exporting country.
This article brings up that perhaps Chile’s grape, Carmenere could be the vehicle to giving Chile an identity. Carmenere is Chile’s grape; there is no doubt about it. Nobody else produces it let alone celebrates it the way Chile does. Carmenere was, however originally a grape that was grown side by side with Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux, France. In the early 1900’s a disease (root louse rather) destroyed essentially every vine in Europe and replanting was done without Carmenere. Not much is known why Carmenere wasn’t replanted, but it wasn’t. So folks thought it was lost. Well it had not become extinct after all; it turned up in Chile in the 1980’s and is now trying it’s best to define a nations wine culture. Might just work, couldn’t hurt any. The quality of some Carmenere these days is awesome. If you haven’t tried one yet you owe it to yourself to buy a bottle today.
Anyway, wine culture is one thing. Those are the folks like you reading this blog who are already curious about Chile. It’s the rest of the consumers out there that must be introduced to Chile so that instead of seeing a Kangaroo on the label and thinking “Oh, Australia, yeah good cheap wine” they will see something on the bottle of a Chilean wine (mountain, river, lovely lady etc.) and associate it with quality wine. Good luck Chilean wine marketers, I’m rooting for you.
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