Winemaker Notes
This very versatile wine pairs well with white meats such as rabbit, pork, or quail as well as with fatty fish and shellfish in light and delicate preparations. Also fares well with Asian dishes such as stir-fries and mild curries.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a fantastic value pinot with spice, lightly grilled meat and almond. Medium body and firm and silky tannins. Austere finish. Light toffee undertone. 5,000 cases made. Drink or hold.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: As wine producers stretch the limits in the realm of Pinot Noir, I have to adjust my prototypes away from Burgundy, the Willamette Valley, Sonoma Coast, and other favorite haunts of mine. The 2016 Concha y Toro Marques de Casa Concha Pinot Noir shows that Limarí is the "place." TASTING NOTES: This wine is bright and lively. Its aromas and flavors of cranberries, strawberries, tobacco leaves, and mineral make it a perfect pairing partner with fresh salmon sashimi. (Tasted: October 25, 2018, San Francisco, CA
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.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
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.