The Caskaway

Casa Silva Microterroir Carménère Chile 2018. Last week I popped along to a wine expo held by one of the island’s wine merchants and had a nice couple of hours chatting with both like-minded enthusiasts and a few experts. It was fun to compare some of the traditional and modern style Riojas on offer as you may know I am a big fan of both, and you could really see the different approaches to one of my favourite wines.

I tried an extremely nice bottle of Saint Joseph, Les Challeys, Delas Frères, from the Rhone Valley, and remembered I need to push myself to drink more French wine, particularly ones as nice as this. There was a ton of red and black berry flavours, like a glass of Cassis with hints of cinnamon and spice from some use of oak. It was a great wine made with one hundred per cent Syrah, so not altogether an unexpected surprise that I enjoyed it.

Carménère

The standout wine from the event, Casa Silva Microterrior Carménère, was definitely one to talk about in some detail as it was an outstanding example of a grape I haven’t profiled before. The Carménère grape was originally native to France but it is now almost exclusively grown in Chile. It has lots of berry aromas and flavours but also lots of herbaceous notes and in many examples, you can clearly smell green bell peppers. With the first Carménère, I tasted Casa Silva Reserva Carménère it was like slicing open a pile of green peppers ready to stuff with savoury rice.

This is one of those interesting aromas in wine tasting that at first, you might assume to be off-putting but it isn’t. Handled correctly by the wine maker it adds another dimension to a wine. It is due to the presence of a chemical compound called pyrazine and they can lead to wines smelling of freshly cut grass, asparagus, and the distinctive bell pepper. The compounds are prevalent in Carménère, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc. Think of the aromas of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. The presence of these aromas is a very useful guide for tasting wine blind as they help indicate the grape variety as they are only detectable in certain wines.

Colchagua Valley, Chile

Casa Silva Microterroir Carménère is produced in the Colchagua Valley in central Chile. It is planted mainly with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah / Shiraz, and Carménère. The region is almost perfect for wine, with a warm and dry Mediterranean climate cooled by ocean breezes. Geographically a river valley floor rises to the foothills of the Andes and Coastal Mountain Ranges. Here the well-drained soil and steeper slopes produce highly concentrated grapes with a great balance of acidity and sugar.

Casa Silva Microterroir Carménère Chile 2018

The Silva family have been making wine in the Colchagua Valley since 1892 and are owners of the oldest wine cellar in the valley. Viña Casa Silva was established in 1997 by members of the fifth generation to make wine under their name. They now own several vineyards and produce award-winning wines from a variety of grapes including Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Now the technical stuff, the Carménère grapes are hand-picked from select micro plots ( that’s very small pre-identified areas of the vines ), in the Los Lingues Vineyard, nestled at the base of the Andes. The grapes are destemmed and then macerated before fermentation. The wine has a second period of maceration before malolactic fermentation and ageing in French oak barrels before bottling.

A deep purple colour with aromas of ripe plums and blackcurrants, a hint of bitterness, coffee maybe? Then that interesting kick of a freshly cut green bell pepper or Jalapenos. This wine is complex with lots of raspberry and blackberry flavours, bitter chocolate notes and lots of pepper spice balanced by acidity and plenty of soft tannins.  This Carménère was a beautiful wine to drink but has the potential to age, I think it would be great with big steak or char-grilled lamb with rosemary and garlic but because of the fruit and herbaceous notes is versatile enough to go with all roast and barbecued meats. I enjoyed tasting and learning about this grape variety and would recommend this wine.

Grape variety                                 Carménère

Country of origin                           Chile

Region                                             Colchagua Valley

Vintage                                            2018

Alcohol                                            14.5%

Notes

Casa Silva winery has won multiple awards for their wines and is certified energy by the Chilean authorities,