Carmen Gran Reserva Casablanca Valley Chardonnay 2010

Carmen’s Gran Reserva offerings are part of Carmen’s luxury series of wines, and they offer the consumer one of the finest quality/value ratios of any wine. In the case of Carmen’s 2010 Gran Reserva Casablanca Chardonnay, purity, balance, and flavor await the eager taster. A hypothetical blend of New World Chardonnay and French White Burgundy, the 2010 Carmen Gran Reserva Chardonnay offers up a beckoning bouquet of fresh pressed apples, minerals, stone fruits, and warm buttered toast. And happily, all of this Chardonnay’s beguiling aromas seem to carry through on the palate, caressing the mouth and satisfying the eager gullet. Carmen highlights the attributes of Chile’s Casablanca Valley in their 2010 Gran Reserva Chardonnay, imparting to it a blithe spirit, elegance, and flavor in a crowd pleasing format. For optimal enjoyment, we suggest serving this easy drinking Chardonnay moderately chilled after just a few minutes of aeration.

The 2010 Carmen Gran Reserva Chardonnay is wine fit for the discerning gourmet as well as the casual drinker, who may prefer to sip a glass or two solely as an aperitif. However, our choice of accompaniments for this classically structured and superbly crafted Chardonnay runs to the tenderest of morsels.  Consequently, we suggest that you serve this attractive Chardonnay with the very finest available hors d’oeuvres, fish, fowl, or fruits de mer. Salmon, sole, crab, scallops, and lobster all provide excellent seafood suggestions upon which one could easily build a wonderful dinner party.  Seafood is, however, not the only venue that one can choose to showcase Carmen’s Gran Reserva Chardonnay. Chicken, veal and other white meats provide equally impressive backdrops from which to showcase this wine. Sautéed Veal Medallions with mushrooms and cream is a perennial favorite, as the savory aspects of the dish complement Carmen’s style and accentuate the individual flavors in the wine. However, Carmen’s elegant, tasty Chardonnay hardly needs much to shine but a clean glass, so enjoy!

Carmen is Chile’s oldest wine brand, dating back to 1850. A century and a half ago, Christian Lanz founded Viña Carmen and lovingly named the estate’s beautiful vineyards for his wife. Today, Viña Carmen remains the showpiece Lanz envisioned more than a century and half ago. Combining tradition, superb vineyards and a state of the art winery that was constructed in 1992, Viña Carmen is currently South America’s leading winery as well as its oldest. In the 1990’s, winemaker Alvaro Espinoza, a proponent of organic viticulture, moved Carmen to the forefront of South American producers and brought international renown to this venerable property, a position it retains today under the current regime. Wine & Spirits magazine has named Carmen “Top Winery of the Year” at least four times and current offerings are some of the finest this esteemed winery has produced to date. Carmen’s Vineyards spread across several valleys and the many micro-climates surrounding Chile’s capital, Santiago. This constellation of microclimates allows Carmen to select the best grape varieties for each area and to excel with many different grapes and styles of wine. The winery has been extremely successful with French varietals, including Carmenère which has become Chile’s flagship varietal. Recent releases of Chardonnay have been exceptional as well. Internationally renowned winemaker Alvaro Espinoza, who joined Carmen in 1993 and helped boost the winery’s stellar reputation, was instrumental in isolating and identifying Carmenère as a unique grape variety. He then went on to produce some of South America’s most exciting Carmenère based wines, a legacy that endures at Carmen. Alvarez also instituted organic farming at Carmen and greatly improved the estate’s white wines. Currently, Carmen uses no pesticides in its vineyards and is the leading force in Chile toward more environmentally sensitive viticulture. In addition, many of Carmen’s wines are bottled unfiltered. The winery has also made the commitment to use lighter bottles in an effort to cut waste and reduce the environmental impact of transport.