If you were to guess the 6 red varietals that a Chilean wine retailer carries the most of, what would you guess?
Cabernet sauvignon, carmenere, merlot, syrah, pinot noir, malbec.
In the “otros cepages” (other red varietals) section there was a cabernet franc, petit verdot, carignan, sangiovese, nebbiolo, and that was it. I was surprised not to find the Spanish varietals tempranillo and granacha on the shelves at the supermarket, Mundo Del Vino, or Enoteca (in Vina del Mar).
Patricio Tapia met with the group a few days ago and said that it would be interesting to do a tasting on Chilean carignan. He just wrote a blog post today about a Chilean carignan he tried recently.
The 2008 Santa Carolina carignan and the 2006 De Martino carignan were really good. The 2004 Orzada Odfjell carignan might have been a bad bottle, and the 2006 Santa Ema Amplus carignane was a little too raisny/chocolate/overripe tasting.
4 more wineries to go!
