Lost and found
Wine is all about discovery. I’m not saying it’s normal, but some of my earliest wine experiences involved a green bottle in the back seat of a ’68 Mustang. If you had a similar start, then you too probably have delicious memories of your first taste of a really great wine. Mine was a bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (sadly, I don’t remember whose), served with our 1990 Christmas beef Wellington. I’m not suggesting that it changed my life or anything, but it certainly opened my eyes to greater possibilities. I’d long since moved beyond Annie Greensprings, of course, but tasting that Cab was like discovering a whole new planet.

So imagine how exciting it must have been for Dean Morrison when he planted a small plot of Carmenere, the “lost grape” of Bordeaux, in his Walla Walla Valley vineyard, making him one of only a handful of Washington growers supplying this grape. Carmenere virtually disappeared from France in the late 19th century, a victim of the phylloxera infestation that wiped out nearly all of France’s vineyards. Fortunately, it was part of an earlier diaspora of French grapes to South America, where it thrived in Chilean vineyards alongside the better-known Merlot. Eventually, it became so entwined there with Merlot that it lost its identity entirely, and was mistaken over the years for a Merlot clone. It wasn’t until 1994 that researcher Jean Michael Bousiquot positively identified a vine in Chile as Carmenere. Voila. The lost grape lived again.

Morrison leapt on it with glee. He’s sort of a contrarian when it comes to wine grapes. His 23-acre Walla Walla vineyard includes plantings of relatively obscure varieties like Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo, all native to Italy’s Piedmont region, along with Viognier, Cinsault, and Sangiovese. Morrison in 1999 was also the first in Washington to plant Counoise.  His son Dan transforms these varieties into some lovely wines at the family's Walla Walla winery.

All of these grapes fall into a category growers call “sport varieties,” grapes that are traditionally blended to enhance the more robust traits of Cabernet or Merlot. Syrah was once part of this group, although in the last decade it has become ubiquitous on wine lists. Similarly, Washington State Viognier has taken off running.

But Carmenere remains elusive. It’s still used primarily as a blending grape, but it occasionally shows up on shelves as a varietal. My local wine vender stocks a Chilean bottle from Peralillo Winery called Arenal, and it makes a very nice little everyday wine, especially refreshing when you’re looking for a change from Cabernet or Merlot. And just the other night we enjoyed a pleasant bottle of 2008 Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere from Concha y Toro. (“Chile’s very own grape,” according to the label.) But the 2005 Carmenere from Morrison Lane is a lot more interesting, with earthy notes wound around tastes of plums, and a bit of spice as well.

“I was attracted to it because of its rarity,” Morrison laughs. “It was made for a guy like me.” Besides his own winery, his vineyard supplies other producers in the Walla Walla area, as well, including Seven Hills, where winemaker Casey McClellan has produced a couple vintages of Carmenere.

McClellan likes to experiment with different varieties, and after he encountered a bottle of Carmenere at a tasting in Bordeaux ten years ago, he decided to give it a whirl. Carmenere can be like a spicy Merlot, he said, but with a softer body. It’s a bigger grape, and more exposure to the skins gives the wine a more accessible structure than some of its bigger cousins. Seven Hills’ Carmenere is full of red raspberry flavors, white pepper and herbs like tarragon and chervil.

McClellan has had fun with the Carmenere, and he plans to continue making it. “I like to offer something a little different. People seem to enjoy a medium-bodied wine with some exotic notes to it,” he says. But he bottles less than 100 cases, and most of that is sold through the Seven Hills wine club or at the winery. Is it worth the trip? You’ll have to try it to decide. Remember, wine is all about discovery.