Carmen Gran Reserva Casablanca Valley Chardonnay 2011

Carmen’s 2011 Gran Reserva Chardonnay is part of Carmen’s luxury series of wines. It’s a Chardonnay that offers both flavor and grace, along with a winning combination of pure ripe New World fruit with the elegance and finesse of French White Burgundy. The 2011 Carmen Gran Reserva Chardonnay offers up a light golden robe and a pretty bouquet of freshly picked apples, apricots and warm buttered toast. In the mouth, this balanced, medium-bodied Chardonnay follows through with plenty of savory stone fruit flavors and deft touches of oak and spice that make this wine easy to drink and enjoy. In their Gran Reserva Chardonnay, Carmen highlights Casablanca Valley’s growing prowess with Chardonnay and that magical land’s innate ability to impart supple, elegant flavors in a crowd pleasing format. For optimal enjoyment, we suggest serving this lithe Chardonnay moderately chilled (40°-45° F) after a few minutes of aeration.

The 2011 Carmen Gran Reserva Chardonnay strikes us as a Chardonnay for all occasions. It is a wine equally at home as an aperitif as it is when called upon to grace the table of the most discerning gourmet. We enjoyed this wine initially on its own and again with a variety of tender morsels. Our preference is to pair this food-friendly Chardonnay with fish, fowl, and other fruits from the sea. Tilapia prepared with grilled peach salsa; grilled salmon served atop a bed of fresh field greens, dried apricots, cherries, walnuts, and tender bits of crumbled goat cheese; and a jumbo lump crab cake sandwich all provide excellent pairings with this wine. However, seafood is not the only game in town with this Chardonnay. Roast chicken and turkey with all of the trimming provide equally satisfying accompaniments to Carmen’s delightful Gran Reserva. Sautéed veal medallions with mushrooms in a light cream sauce offer another savory complement to Carmen’s stylish 2011 Gran Reserva Chardonnay. 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 a 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 1990s, 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 from Casablanca Valley have been exceptional as well.