Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Creamy limey fruit with some roasted pineapple and a hint of stoney minerality. This is medium-bodied chardonnay, rendered in a creamy palate with bright, refreshing acidity. Balance is the word.
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Vinous
The 2020 Chardonnay Marques de Casa Concha from Quebrada Seca, Limarí, was barrel-aged for 12 months. Yellowy-green in hue. The nose offers notes of green apple, lemon zest, ginger cookie and hazelnut. In the mouth, the flavors are intense, with a voluminous flow and a creamy, slightly saline feel that leaves clear hazelnut notes lingering at the back of the throat. A very competitively priced wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
This white from limestone soils in Chile's northern wine region has a nose of butter, tropical fruits, and lime. Fruit flavors and oak spice are supported by enough acidity to make the wine enjoyable.
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.