March 02, 2018

What Does Carménère Wine Taste Like?

What Does Carménère Wine Taste Like? - TBWS

Most Carménère Wines have striking aromas of raspberry sauce, sour cherry, green peppercorn and a granite-like minerality. On the more affordable end, you can expect to find Carménère wines with honest fruity red berry aromas and tart flavors of raspberry with a subtle bitter taste similar to kale. In fact, Carménère has many similarities in terms of body and texture to Merlot. On the higher end, the herbaceous bitter notes depart the scene in favor of sweet berries, refined light tannin and a bittersweet note, like cocoa powder.

Carménère is a medium-bodied red wine that originated in Bordeaux, France and now grows almost only in Chile. The wine is treasured for its supple red-and-black berry flavors (in a similar style to Merlot) and herbaceous notes of green peppercorn. Originally, Carménère was thought to be Merlot when it was first transplanted into Chile. This case of mistaken identity is perhaps what saved Carménère from extinction when Phylloxera devastated the vineyards of Bordeaux in the late 1800’s.