Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère 2018

Although Casa Silva consistently works magic with the mercurial Carmenère variety, the 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère is without a doubt the finest and most hedonistic Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère to date, and has earned 90 points from Vinous, James Suckling, and Tim Atkin. Juicy, sensuous, and bursting with flavor, the 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère marks another milestone in the winery’s great success with bold flavored Carmenère. The 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua hails from Silva’s finest estate vineyards, including those from the Angostura estate at the base of the Andes. It exhibits Carmenère’s telltale deep purple color and provides a feast for the nose as well as the palate. From the moment it splashes into the glass, it offers up a heady bouquet of ripe blackberries, red currants, woodland herbs, and an entrancing aroma of cacao. Plush and velvety in the mouth, the wine explodes with the essences of ripe forest berries infused with the finest dark chocolate and coffee flavors along with hints of exotic spices. Equally impressive is the wine’s glorious texture, testimony to perfectly ripe tannins that provide balance and freshness without a hard edge. Although immediately gratifying upon first opening, the 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua will build in the glass with a bit of aeration – a hallmark of the finest Carmenère. Afford the 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua 15-20 minutes of aeration to reveal its best self and enjoy its luscious, bold, but not brazen flavors. For optimal enjoyment we suggest serving the delightfully flamboyant 2018 Casa Silva Cuvée Colchagua at cool room temperature (58º-64º F). Enjoy!

Carmenère, a Bordeaux varietal in origin, truly thrives at table even more than its Bordeaux counterparts – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. It is also more accessible and enjoyable in its youth and on its own, as Carmenère’s bold flavors are not bolstered by harsh tannins. All types of meats make fine companions to Casa Silva’s plush 2018 Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère as do spicy vegetable dishes and often difficult to match foods such as asparagus, artichokes, and hummus. So whether it is an elegant dinner party featuring Pressed Duck Breast or Loin Lamb Chops as the main attraction or a simple midweek meal in which meatloaf, pizza or Eggplant Parmigiana constitute dinner, Casa Silva’s 2018 Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère will shine. Additional tried and true accompaniments include Stuffed Red Peppers brimming with spicy Italian sausage, orzo, and shaved Parmesan cheese, Three Cheese and Mushroom Pizza, and Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with lentils. And if one’s culinary arts or ability to take out are limited, we suggest pairing Casa Silva’s hedonistic Cuvée Colchagua Carmenère with a selection of gourmet cheeses and dark chocolates. Imagine a world in which all three pillars of gastronomic pleasure – cheese, chocolate and wine – reside at table. Think Carmenère and enjoy!

The sprawling Casa Silva estate is located two hundred kilometers south of Santiago, in the heart of Colchagua, an area referred to as Chile’s Napa Valley. Casa Silva astounds with the quality as well as the variety of the wines it produces. The estate’s spotless modern winery continuously pushes the envelope on quality, which no doubt accounts for its status among the finest wine estates of South America. Casa Silva has garnered more recognition and awards at international wine competitions than any other Chilean winery. It has also been awarded Winery of Year from numerous sources many times over. Furthermore, Catad’Or Hyatt, Chile’s most prestigious wine competition, has named Casa Silva the “Best Chilean Producer” three consecutive times. However, it is not the past that matters, but the present. The Silva family and consulting enologist Mario Geise, dubbed the King of Carmenère, continue to take this beautiful property that sits at the base of the towering Andes to ever loftier heights.

Casa Silva’s present inception dates back to only 1997, the year this property began bottling premium wines under its own name. However, historical accounts tell us that the Silva family’s predecessors were pioneers in Colchagua more than a century ago, when the Silvas brought the first grape varieties from France to the Angostura estate they still occupy on the slopes of the Cordillera of the Andes that loom above their vineyards. Today, the Silvas remain pioneers: they continue as Colchagua’s foremost experts on Carmenère, Chile’s emblematic red grape variety. Moreover, this great property is at the vanguard of South America’s success with other traditional French grape varieties, most notably Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, and Semillon. Can there be any doubt as to why the wines of Casa Silva are among the most highly acclaimed in South America?

Carmenère, like Cabernet Sauvignon, hails from Bordeaux. The greatest wines of Bordeaux and California are just a few examples of Cabernet’s preeminence in the world of wine. On the other hand, Carmenère, one of six legal red Bordeaux varietals, only occasionally now makes its appearance in Bordeaux. However, Carmenère has been resurrected in Chile where it thrives in the dry, phylloxera-free environment of Chile’s Central Valley. Although cultivated in Chile for centuries, Carmenère has in the past generation come to fore, producing Chile’s most emblematic wine. Carmenère shines on its own when bottled as a varietal, and it also makes a wonderful partner to Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.