Carmenere
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The Carmenere grape is a wine grape variety originally planted in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France where it is used to produce deep red wines occasionally used for blending purposes in the same manner as Petit Verdot.
The world's largest vineyard area of this variety is now found in the Central Valleys of Chile in South America. Recent genetic research has shown that the variety may be distantly related to Merlot.
The Carmenere grape variety was once heavily planted in the Bordeaux region of France. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find Carmenere in Bordeaux as a Phylloxera plague in 1867 nearly destroyed all the vineyards of Europe. Fortunately, this grape variety was imported into Chile in 1850, so it wasn't wiped out when the plague attacked. Until recent times, wine lovers had forgotten that Carmenere had survived in Chile. It was often mistaken for and sold as Merlot before its true identity was rediscovered.
It is claimed by some that the variety name is an alias for what is actually the Vidure, a local Bordeaux name for a Cabernet Sauvignon clone once thought to be the grape from which all red Bordeaux varieties originated. Another theory holds that the true name should be Biturica, thought to be an ancient variety that originated from Iberia - (modern Spain/Portugal) - as claimed by Pliny, and currently a popular blending variety with Sangiovese in Tuscany called "Predicato di Biturica".
External links
- Carmenere, lost grape of Bordeaux (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_5_81/ai_62196550)
- Where Oh where is Carmenere? (http://mercury.northlandinc.com/GirvanPatterson/Wine/Carmenere.pdf#search='Carmenere%20%20where')de:Carmenère