"Lost" Grape of Bordeaux

Carménère grapes

Friday, December 2nd will be an international tasting excursion with Ben Jakubec of Tryon Distributing bringing in Chilean wines from Viña Errázuriz.  Viña Errázuriz is one of the oldest vineyards in Chile founded in 1870 by Don Maximiano Errázuriz with the philosophy:  "From the best land, the best wine."

Influenced heavily, as are most Chilean vineyards, by French winemaking styles (particularly Bourdeaux); Don Silvestre Errázuriz was the first to import French varietals - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc, Malbec, Sauvignon blanc, and Semillon. He hired a French oenologist to oversee his vineyard planting and to produce wine in the Bordeaux style  The phylloxera epidemic (also known as the Great French Wine Blight) of the mid-19th century while destroying many French vineyards and decimating the French wine industry was a boon to Chile's emerging wine industry as many French winemakers traveled to South America, bringing their experience and techniques with them.  More than 130 years later and with Eduardo Chadwick at the helm, (a fifth generation of the family to be involved in winemaking) Don Maximiano's founding philosophy holds true.  

There are six grapes considered "the original grapes of Bourdeaux".   Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petit verdot and Carménère. When the phylloxera  plague in 1867 nearly destroyed all the vineyards of Europe, the Carménère grapevines in particular were especially afflicted; and for many years the grape was presumed extinct.  Chilean growers inadvertently preserved it because of its similarity to Merlot.  It was the "something different" about the Chilean Merlots that eventually led to the rediscovery of Carménère.

It is with pleasure that Off the Vine is adding Errázuriz wines to our Think Global, Drink Local corner.  We will have two bottlings of the "lost" Bordeaux grape - Single Vineyard and Estate Carménère, along with two Chardonnays - Estate and Wild Ferment, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and Estate Sauvignon Blanc.

sources:  Wikipedia
http://www.errazuriz.com/errazuriz/