Don't call me Merlot? Understand?
Although Marks and Spencer picked up the best supermarket award at both the International Wine Challenge and Decanter World Wine Awards this year, I rarely find myself buying their wines. Food, yes of course, but wine? Nope, can’t even remember if there’s been a first time let alone a last.
Last night (under instruction to buy a bunch of ingredients for my wife’s stunning interpretation of Gordon Ramsey’s Tomato Soup) I popped over to the M&S on Oxford Street, collected the food and opted for a bottle of Los Molles Carménère, 2007 (£7.99).
Los Molles is named for the evergreen trees that grow in the Lamari province of Northern Chile. Native Indians traditionally revered their fruits for medicinal purposes, as well as producing the ancient alcoholic drink known as muchi. The wine is matured in French oak for 12 months and has a distinct peppery undertone to the full fruit flavours of blackcurrant and plum. As my drinking partner said of the wine last night “It tastes of Christmas”.
The Carménère grape also has an interesting tale to tell. Originally indigenous to the Medoc in Bordeaux, cuttings of Carmenère were imported by Chilean growers during the 19th century but were regularly confused with Merlot. During most of the 20th century Carménère was inadvertently collected and processed together with Merlot grapes (probably reaching up to 50% of the total volume) giving Chilean Merlot a markedly different taste to that of Merlot produced elsewhere.
In 1994, Professor Jean-Michel Boursiquot of the Montpellier’s school of Oenology confirmed that the earlier-ripening vine was Bordeaux Carmenère and not Merlot. It took The Chilean Department of Agriculture another 4 years to officially recognized Carménère as a distinct variety and today Chile has seized the opportunity to claim Carménère as it’s own.
M&S are currently offering 25% off all wines when you but any 6.
