2023 Escudo Rojo (Rothschild) - Carmenere Valle de Colchagua Gran Reserva (750ml)

Escudo Rojo was founded in 1999 by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, daughter of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, as the family’s Chilean outpost. The name means “red shield,” a Spanish translation of Rothschild, signaling a venture rooted in Bordeaux tradition but expressed through Chilean terroir. The winery sits in Buin in the Maipo Valley and is led by managing director and winemaker Emmanuel Riffaud, who worked with the Mouton Cadet team before moving to Chile in 2008.

This Gran Reserva is 100 percent Carmenere from the Colchagua Valley, where clay soils and abundant sunshine suit Chile’s signature grape. The 2023 season opened with a warm spring, then temperatures climbed gradually, allowing a slow ripening that built concentration and aromatic intensity. Roughly 80 percent of the wine aged for ten months in French oak barrels, 30 percent of them new.

Deep violet with a purple rim, the wine offers blueberry, plum, and wild berry aromas laced with violet, clove, and Sichuan pepper, along with touches of tobacco and vanilla from the oak. The palate is rich yet fresh, with a velvety texture, refined tannins, and a lingering finish of dark fruit and spice.