Lost and Found Carmenere
We hope you’ve enjoyed the employee profiles we’ve shared recently. But enough about us, let’s talk about wine! Reininger makes a wine from a very rare lost grape variety with a history full of tales of mystery and discovery. Lost in Bordeaux, found in Chile, and thriving in Walla Walla, this intriguing grape is Carmenere. More to the point, you can find this amazing grape at Reininger, in the Reininger 2007 Carmenere.
The storied Carmenere is one of the oldest European wine grape varietals. Although some scholars assert there are allusions to this vine in ancient Roman and Iberian texts, Carmenere is commonly thought to have originated in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France. Historically, the Carmenere grape was widely cultivated in Bordeaux where it was typically used as a blending variety. The excellent quality of wines produced from Carmenere grapes helped establish the lasting reputation of some of the best Bordeaux vineyards.
The widespread reign of Carmenere tumbled with the invasion of the 1867 Phylloxera plague, an invasion of minuscule pests that decimated the vast majority of grape vines in France. After the Phylloxera plague, Carmenere was almost impossible to find in Bordeaux, and the low yields of the remaining vines led growers to abandon the grape in favor of heartier varieties. The Phylloxera destruction, and subsequent abandonment of Carmenere vines led to the common belief that Carmenere was an extinct variety, lost forever to history.
Obviously the Carmenere grape wasn’t entirely extinct, as we have some for sale here.
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