JD: I think that Carménère is unique. It’ s important for Chile to have something that other people are not offering. But, why not try something new? Personally, I love those styles of wine; that’ s why I’ m making it my Plexus style in the Barossa. I really like working with those varieties. From what I’ ve seen, Carignan has been planted in Chile for some time, and I saw some young Mourvèdre in the last 12 months, which I thought was quite interesting. I thought there was quite a bit of potential. It could be very interesting.
Five years ago, when I first started going to Chile, I could probably count on two hands the number of wines between $ 30 and $ 40. Now there’ s a proliferation of flagship wines from many companies.
MM: In order to stay away from some of that green tomato-leaf characteristic, which is one of the great characteristics of Carménère, Ventisquero pushes harvest later to get fuller flavours. Are you finding that there are some characteristics about Carménère that really excite you that match well with Syrah? What brought about this combination?
JD: When we released Pangea in 2004, it was quite successful. I was getting excited and we were thinking, what other potential do we have at the Apalta vineyard? And we looked at the other varieties there— there’ s Cabernet planted there, there’ s Merlot and Carménère, as well as the Syrah. Felipe and I were doing some trial blends, looking at combinations of different varieties, and as a last-ditch sort of trial, I put a Carménère and a Syrah together and I really liked the combination. Carménère, coming originally from the Cabernet family, has a little bit of Cabernet character, but it has its own expression of course, with tannins not quite as full-on as Cabernet tannins. I liked the balance of the two varieties.
MM: Over time, has your winemaking changed, in terms of aging potential and drinkability? Coming from Penfolds Grange, which is meant to sit for up to 50 years, going next to your Plexus line in Barossa, to Pangea in Chile, and even Sequel in Washington, are you making wines that are more approachable earlier or has this just been an evolution of your winemaking?
JD: I think it’ s probably unfair to look at Grange in that context because my job as Chief Winemaker at Penfolds was split into two parts. The first part was amazing— continuing the tradition of being the custodian of wines like Grange and Bin 707 and the traditional Penfolds wines. The second part of my job was exciting as well, because I had the opportunity to develop some new wines. And in many respects, that gives you more of an indication of where my head was at stylistically when I had a chance to make my own wines. I developed the Penfolds RWT, which was another expression of Barossa Shiraz. It’ s a more blackberry / blueberrystyle, using French oak rather than the American oak that is used in Grange and other traditional Penfolds wines. I have looked for a more elegant expression rather than a big 16 per cent alcohol expression from the varieties.
MM: The expression of wines coming together as a terroir and as a blend, making sure it’ s a complete and balanced wine— is that an exciting part of the winemaking process for you?
JD: Oh, yes. I cut my teeth on a blending philosophy because Penfolds made a lot of blended wines, multi-varietals, or blending within the district. That’ s a part of winemaking I really enjoy.