HEKTOR CARMENERE

Hektor Carmenere is the estate's fragrant red from Carménère — a grape that is a member of the Cabernet Sauvignon family but that has developed a distinctly individual character through its centuries of cultivation in the right conditions. Named for Hektor — the Trojan hero of Homer's Iliad, the most honourable and the most noble of the warriors on the Trojan side — the wine carries both the weight of classical reference and the fragrant elegance that Carménère at its best consistently delivers.

Carménère is a variety with a complex history: originally one of the six classic Bordeaux varieties, it virtually disappeared from France after the phylloxera epidemic before being rediscovered in Chile, where it had been cultivated under mistaken identity as Merlot for over a century. In Friuli, where the variety has been present since the late nineteenth century, it finds conditions of particular suitability — the cool, mineral, bora-influenced soils of the Friuli Aquileia DOC giving it an aromatic freshness and a spice complexity that warmer growing conditions sometimes obscure.

Deep ruby red, opening immediately with notes of underbrush, red fruit, and musk on the nose — the characteristic Carménère aromatic register in its most fully expressed form. A sensory balance between primary red-fruit aromas and tertiary notes where pepper dominates in harmony with vanilla: the oak ageing contributing the secondary dimension that integrates the variety's natural fruit intensity with the structural complexity that makes it genuinely interesting.

Ideal alongside aged cheeses, hearty red meats, truffle dishes — the estate's specific pairing recommendations, and ones that accurately reflect the wine's structural weight and aromatic complexity.

Available through UniqueWines.