Winemaker Notes
A great match for pork ribs, vegetables au gratin, and lamb-stuffed pasta.
Blend: 100% Carmenere
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This offers an attractive, fresh, cassis and blackberry fruit mix, as well as tarry notes that lead to a medium-bodied palate with a firm yet fleshy core of fresh purple fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Again, the varietal nose of the 2017 Carmenere Reserva de Familia is full of ground peppers, spices and smoke, intense and showy, with some flowers, herbs and wild berries. The palate reveals fine tannins and good balance, finishing dry and long. It matured in French oak for 14 months.
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.
Touching the Pacific in the west and stretching up into the Andes on its eastern side, the Rapel Valley is one of the more substantial fine red wine producing regions of Chile and contains both the Colchagua Valley in its south and west and the Cachapoal in its north and east. While it is recognized for its exceptional warm-climate reds, the region does produce some fine Pinot noir and Sauvignon blanc on its coastal side.
Some of the country’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the Rapel’s Andean foothills—with significant individualized smaller zones already identified. Soils here are mixtures of loam, clay, and sand; Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, and Merlot are the most prolific varieties throughout the region.