Amy Monroe shares her favorite unusual, overlooked, and underappreciated wines every Tuesday. Check out her previous installment here.
Carignane is the viticultural equivalent of Jon & Kate, the Duggars, and Octo Mom. Left to its own devices, it bears prodigious amounts of fruit. This is bad. When it comes to wine, high yields equal poor quality. Much like parents whose broods creep into double-digit territory, growers of Carignane spend the majority of their time attempting to keep the vines under control. Typically, they are rewarded with grapes that are very tannic, very acidic, and generally acknowledged to be harsh. Add to these charming qualities the fact that English speakers can’t pronounce it (it’s Care-In-Yawn, by the way), and it’s no wonder you hardly ever see Carignane’s name on a wine label.
I used to be a buyer for a wine shop, which basically means I got paid to taste wine. During that time, for me, Carignane lived up to its infamous reputation: I hated every one I tried. They all tasted like burnt rubber, and a single sip was often so acidic that I worried about the state of my tooth enamel. I didn’t like Carignane, and I told people so – customers, colleagues, friends. In my opinion (about which I was vocal), it was just plain bad, the trailer trash of wine grapes. Then I tasted Trinafour “Niemi Vineyard” Carignane.