El Incidente is Viu Manent’s wager on Carménère, now considered to be Chile’s emblematic variety. Although it disappeared from the Old World after the phylloxera attack in the mid-19th century, it was rediscovered, rather by accident, in Chile in the early 1990s. “El Incidente” is named after the now-legendary balloon flight I took with some friends over our Colchagua vineyards. The trip ended unexpectedly when we landed in the middle of an open air market in the town of Santa Cruz”, José Miguel Viu. The Incident is graphically portrayed and explained on the label, but the coment is that  the beautiful view of the vineyards from the calm stillness of the air was breathtaking, and even the incident was worth it just for the experience. The first vintage of El Incidente is 2007. The wine is based on 93% of Carménère with 4% of Petit Verdot and 3% of Malbec included in the blend for complexity and greater freshness on the palate. The grapes come from a selection of the best vineyards on the Viu Manent property in the Colchagua Valley. The Carménère comes from the La Capilla Vineyard, the Malbec from the San Carlos Vineyard, and the Petit Verdot from the El Olivar Vineyard. This Icon wine has all the spicy characteristics of Carménère, and present flavours of blueberry jam, chocolate, and mocha stand out on the palate for a complex and refined profile. It was aged in French oak barrels for 21 months and bottled on March 31, 2009.