Winemaker Notes
Nose: Very elegant. Complex, a great deal of black fruit; plums and blackberries with hints of gooseberries and tobacco.
Palate: Well-structured, filling, bitter chocolate, sweet tannins, vigorous and concentrated. Thick with an oily texture, its rich fruity base ends in a long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Carmin de Peumo is the winery flagship and a candidate for Chile’s finest wine. The 2005 Carmin de Peumo Carmenere (I reviewed the 2003 in Issue 171, there was no 2004 produced) is a blend of the best parcels in the Peumo Vineyard. It spent 20 months in French oak and was bottled without fining or filtration. Purple/black in color, this profound effort gives up an amazing aromatic array of wood smoke, scorched earth, leather, espresso, blueberry compote, and blackberry liqueur. This leads to an opulent, extraordinarily rich, nearly over the top, sumptuous wine with deeply hidden structure, exceptional balance, and which manages to remain light on its feet despite its immense power. It can be enjoyed now but will be so much better in 5-7 years. It is a tour de force!
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Wine Spectator
Driven and pure, with remarkably supple tannins guiding the black currant, plum, graphite and melted dark licorice notes. Picks up additional loam and coffee notes on the finish, but stays fine-grained and stylish despite its weight. Also contains Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2009 through 2015. 1,000 cases made.
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Wine Enthusiast
For serious Carmenère, Carmín is at the top of the list. It’s almost late-harvest in terms of richness and ripeness, with earth, leather, mineral, pepper, plum and berry on the nose. Dense and balanced, yet a little on the soft side, with meaty raspberry and plum flavors. Finishes dark, with coffee, toast and leather. A cuddly, chewy wine to drink now for all its power and richness.
Founded in 1883, Vina Concha y Toro is Latin America's leading producer and occupies an outstanding position among the world’s most important wine companies, currently exporting to 135 countries worldwide. Uniquely, it owns around 9,500 hectares of prime vineyards, which allows the company to secure the highest quality grapes for its wine production. Concha y Toro's portfolio includes a wide range of successful brands at every price point, from the top of the range Don Melchor and Almaviva to the flagship brand Casillero del Diablo and innovative stand-alone brands such as Palo Alto and Maycas del Limarí. The company has 3,162 employees and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
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.
Dramatic geographic and climatic changes from west to east make Chile an exciting frontier for wines of all styles. Chile’s entire western border is Pacific coastline, its center is composed of warm valleys and on its eastern border, are the soaring Andes Mountains.
Chile’s central valleys, sheltered by the costal ranges, and in some parts climbing the eastern slopes of the Andes, remain relatively warm and dry. The conditions are ideal for producing concentrated, full-bodied, aromatic reds rich in black and red fruits. The eponymous Aconcagua Valley—hot and dry—is home to intense red wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot.
The Maipo, Rapel, Curicó and Maule Valleys specialize in Cabernet and Bordeaux Blends as well as Carmenère, Chile’s unofficial signature grape.
Chilly breezes from the Antarctic Humboldt Current allow the coastal regions of Casablanca Valley and San Antonio Valley to focus on the cool climate loving varieties, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Chile’s Coquimbo region in the far north, containing the Elqui and Limari Valleys, historically focused solely on Pisco production. But here the minimal rainfall, intense sunlight and chilly ocean breezes allow success with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The up-and-coming southern regions of Bio Bio and Itata in the south make excellent Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Spanish settlers, Juan Jufre and Diego Garcia de Cáceres, most likely brought Vitis vinifera (Europe’s wine producing vine species) to the Central Valley of Chile sometime in the 1550s. One fun fact about Chile is that its natural geographical borders have allowed it to avoid phylloxera and as a result, vines are often planted on their own rootstock rather than grafted.