Carmenère

Pl@ntGrape calls Carmenère a descendant of Cabernet Franc. Boursiquot and colleagues (2009) proposed Gros Cabernet × Cabernet Franc; VIVC notes that different pedigrees have been proposed. In the Médoc it was among the small-berried varieties planted after the Great Winter of 1709, but fell out of use from the late 19th century. French plantings stayed tiny: 15 ha in 1958, 7 ha in 2000 and 78 ha in 2018.

On 24 November 1994, during a visit to the Maipo Valley, the French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot identified vines at Viña Carmen in Alto Jahuel, known locally as Merlot, as Carmenère. French experts had doubted the Chilean "Merlot" before, in 1979 and 1991. The wine from that block was bottled as Grande Vidure. OIV counted 11,000 ha in Chile in 2015, 5.1% of the vineyard, among the fastest-growing varieties there.