Winemaker Notes
Clean, clear and bright pale-yellow color. This is a complex, layered wine with standout minerality, white flowers, pear and flinty notes. The structure from the red clay works very well with the minerality of the soil. The palate is ethereal, fine and tense, with good persistence and the saline that is a hallmark of its origin.
Pairs well with fish and shellfish as well as creamy cheeses such as Brie and Camembert.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Quite a fresh and chalky nose of eggshells, lemon peel, flint and a touch of seashells. Fresh and saline on the palate, with a medium to full body and lots of tension and saline character. Lightly briny and long, without getting too extreme. 10% new oak barrels. All from Quebrada Seca.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from the renowned Quebrada Seca site in coastal Limarí, the 2023 Amelia Chardonnay was barrel fermented in 10% new barrique without undergoing malolactic conversion. The nose presents a rich, honeyed and floral bouquet with impressive definition and clarity, leading to a similarly powerful, textural palate invigorated by mineral streaks. It finishes with a balanced, layered profile that is both broad and refreshing, revealing more lingering chalky notes with additional aeration.
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Wine Enthusiast
Limarí is a valley with low rainfall and lots of sunlight balanced by cool breezes from the Pacific Ocean. Chardonnay has shown excellent results in this region. This white begins with aromas of apricot, quince and a touch of ginger. It has depth and energy, exhibiting wood spices, lime, stone fruit and herbs that run smoothly on the palate. A light note of salt adds interest to the finish.
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Wine Spectator
A complex and layered white, with spiced pastry, toasted almond and verbena notes that join an energetic, lingering core of clove-laced baked apple and grilled lemon. Finishes with nice length and a salty, minerally freshness centered on the core flavors.
Founded in 1883, Vina Concha y Toro is Latin America's leading producer and occupies an outstanding position among the world’s most important wine companies, currently exporting to 135 countries worldwide. Uniquely, it owns around 9,500 hectares of prime vineyards, which allows the company to secure the highest quality grapes for its wine production. Concha y Toro's portfolio includes a wide range of successful brands at every price point, from the top of the range Don Melchor and Almaviva to the flagship brand Casillero del Diablo and innovative stand-alone brands such as Palo Alto and Maycas del Limarí. The company has 3,162 employees and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
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.
Part of the Coquimbo region and a key location for pisco production, the Limari Valley is one of the northern most wine producing regions of Chile. The other two, also part of Coquimbo, are the Elqui and less-developed Choapa Valleys. While more vineyard area is dedicated to pisco production (via the grapes of Muscat of Alexandria, Pedro Jimenez, Moscatel de Asturia and Torontel), the acreage under vine for still wine production has increased. The intense sunlight in the Limari Valley, coupled with little rainfall as well as the cooling effect of the Humboldt Current from the Pacifc Ocean, all make the area ideal for cool climate grapes like Chardonnay and Pinot noir.