Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense and fruity wine with silky, very fine tannins and lemon rind. Full body, juicy fruit and wonderful depth and intensity. Pure carignan. Best fruit from the vineyard. One of the best carignans I have ever tasted. Viña del Peumal.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Carignan Dueno de la Luna seems to be the top-end Carinena here, a wine sourced from Loncomilla in the Maule Valley with 50% of the wine maturing in oak barrels for 20 months. It has a very Mediterranean nose with aromas of esparto grass and other aromatic herbs, and that lovely rusticity that usually takes the shape of tree bark, developing very fresh and showy notes of violets. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, clean, defined flavors and a very fresh finish. This is one of the more voluptuous Cariñena, more accessible.
Responsible for some of the most stunning old vine red wine on the planet, Carignan has an amazing capacity to survive dry, arid climates and still produce lovely, mouthwatering wine. In Spain it goes by the name of Mazuelo or Cariñena and while it may have originated there in the province of Aragón, its popularity lies elsewhere, particularly in Languedoc-Roussillon. Somm Secret—Historically Carignan did not enjoy the respect that it does today. In the mid 20th century, Carignan covered nearly 140,000 ha in Algeria, where it was made into low quality bulk and blending wine to supply mass-market demand.
Maule is the Central Valley’s most southern and coolest zone, reaching a southern latitude of 35°S, yet it is still warmer and drier than Bío-Bío to its south. The Maule Valley enjoys success with a unique set of grapes.
It lays claim to the local variety, Pais (synonymous with Tinta Pais, which is actually Tempranillo), which has dominated much of the region’s area under vine until the recent past. Now many growers, not confined by the tradition and regulations of the Old World, also successfully grow Cabernet Sauvignon.
While Maule’s total area under vine remains relatively static, its old Carignan vineyards are undergoing a great revival. The VIGNO (Vignadores del Carignan Vintners) group, an association in charge of promoting this long-forgotten variety, is getting fantastic results from the old vines in its dry-farmed coastal zones.
The Maule includes the subregions of Talca, San Clemente, San Javier, Parral, Linares and Cauquenes.