frugal wines: calina carmenere 2007

Today we had leftovers (gnocchi), so here comes another wine recommendation.

Calina's Carmenere 2007 ($9) combines a smoky taste, bordering on leathery, with dark fruit and persuasive hints of coffee. The color's a deep burgundy, almost purple hue.

The Carmenere vines are almost extinct in France today, having been wiped out by a plague hundreds of years ago by a Philloxera plague. The devastating damage led many to believe the grape extinct. However, vines had been taken to Chile over the years and vineyards had inadvertently led to a healthy flourish of Carmenere grapes (part of this was caused by mistaking the Carmenere grapes for Merlot).

And the piece of random trivia for this wine: Chilean growers used the Carmenere in Merlot wines, up to a concentration fo 50%. It was not until 1998 that the Chilean Department of Agriculture recognized the Carmenere vines as a distinct varietal.

This wine is most excellent with practically any type of food, due to low levels of tannins and vivid hints of fruit.