Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Gran Reserva Escudo Rojo, from Casablanca, was aged for eight months in oak barrels. This yellow wine features aromas of pear and hazelnut. Dry, creamy and taut due to its malic core, it delivers a refreshing and ample palate with a faintly concentrated mouthfeel.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The stylish yet forceful 2023 Baron Philippe de Rothschild Gran Reserva Chardonnay showcases rustic spices and chalk, making it a standout in the international scene and perfect with an oven-roasted chicken. (Tasted: June 16, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The Maipo Valley is Chile’s most famous wine region. Set in the country’s Central Valley, it is warm and quite dry, often necessitating the use of irrigation. Alluvial soils predominate but are supplemented with loam and clay.
The climate in Maipo is best-suited for ripe, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon (the region’s most widely planted grape), Merlot, Syrah and Carmenère, a Bordeaux variety that has found a successful home in Chile.
White wines are also produced with great prosperity, especially near the cooler coast, include Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.