By Marcio Ramírez, Winemaker at Viña Concha y Toro.

Some varieties are simply wines you make; others end up shaping your entire career. For me, Carmenere has been the latter. 

I have been working with this variety for more than 20 years, learning to understand its timing, its distinctive character and its remarkable potential. When I first started working with Carmenere, there was still so much we had to learn. We had to observe, experiment, make mistakes and return to the vineyard time and again. That knowledge was built gradually, vintage after vintage. 

Much of that learning has taken place in Peumo, a place that has been fundamental to understanding Carmenere and its ability to express its origin. Working in the same terroir for so many years allows you to know it intimately, to observe how the variety responds to each growing season and to understand that there is no single formula when it comes to interpreting a vineyard. 

And perhaps that is what I find most fascinating about Carmenere: after all these years, I am still learning from it. Every vintage brings new challenges and asks us to observe the vineyard again, understand its timing and make decisions accordingly. It is a variety that demands patience, precision and, above all, a deep understanding of the place where it grows. 

The way we work with Carmenere has also evolved. Over the years, we have learned to understand it better, recognise its distinctive characteristics and trust increasingly in its ability to convey a sense of place. 

For me, making a great Carmenere is not about following a recipe. It is about knowing how to interpret a vintage, respecting the natural rhythm of the variety and guiding the wine so that it can authentically express where it comes from. In Peumo, this pursuit has been constant for more than two decades, deepening our understanding of the relationship between the variety and its terroir year after year. 

Today, Carmenere holds a central place in my work as a winemaker. I have had the privilege of closely witnessing its evolution and seeing how, over the years, it has developed an identity of its own within Chilean wine. 

After all these years, what excites me most is knowing that this story is still being written. There is still so much to discover, so much to learn and, above all, so much to show the world about the Carmenere we can produce in Chile.