2007 Cono Sur Carmenere

For an article I’m writing entitled “A Beginner’s Guide to Wine” I spent time this past week talking to the wine guru at the Rocket Market, Carl Carlsteen.  Near the end of the conversation he mentioned a Chilean producer that has impressed him with a number of their wines.  The name, I’m sure somewhat tongue-in-cheek, is Cono Sur.

Carlsteen pointed out one Cono Sur bottle on the shelf featuring a grape I’d literally never heard of: Carmenere.  Yet on the strength of his recommendation I snagged a bottle for $9.99.

My bankable wine knowledge is still quite limited and I love tasting wine with others to see what they pick up that I may or may not have noticed in my sniffing and sipping.  Yet I’m going to make an exception with the 2007 Cono Sur Carmenere.  BUY THIS BOTTLE.  I loved it.

I’m still weak on describing what I taste in a given wine, but this Carmenere tasted spicy/smoky in one moment, sweet in another, and has a depth missing from a lot of big American reds.

The grape, it turns out, is a kissing cousin in the Cabernet family and was originally planted in France’s Bourdeux region.  Yet it fell out of favor.

Across Europe the Carmenere vines were torn out and replaced with other varieties.  Thankfully though, this took place only after Carmenere vines had been introduced to South American vineyards in the mid 1800s.  Almost all of the current Carmenere comes from Chile, but I would put money on a comeback elsewhere.

In the meantime, buy this bottle.