Winemaker Notes
Blend: 92% Carménère, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Currants and currant leaves with olives and spices. A medium-bodied red with a juicy and smooth palate, showing good carmenere typicality.
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Vinous
The 2019 Carménère Gran Reserva Calcu also contains 4% dashes of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot from Marchigüe, Colchagua, and was aged for 12 months in French barrels. Purple with a garnet sheen. The aromas feature ripe plum, blackberry jam, ash and a hint of capsicum. In the mouth, the palate is expansive with a medium body and low freshness, while herbal aromas gather at the back of the throat.
Dark, full-bodied and herbaceous with a spicy kick, Carménère found great success with its move to Chile in the mid-19th century. However, the variety went a bit undercover until 1994 when many plantings previously thought to be Merlot, were profiled as Carménère. Somm Secret— Carménère is both a progeny and a great-grandchild of the similarly flavored Cabernet Franc.
Well-regarded for intense and exceptionally high quality red wines, the Colchagua Valley is situated in the southern part of Chile’s Rapel Valley, with many of the best vineyards lying in the foothills of the Coastal Range.
Heavy French investment and cutting-edge technology in both the vineyard and the winery has been a boon to the local viticultural industry, which already laid claim to ancient vines and a textbook Mediterranean climate.
The warm, dry growing season in the Colchagua Valley favors robust reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec and Syrah—in fact, some of Chile’s very best are made here. A small amount of good white wine is produced from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.