THE hushed, almost reverential quiet that pervaded the room was punctuated now and then by the clinking of wine glasses or a flourish on the keyboard from the pianist on the baby grand. Each arriving guest was greeted with a flute of…rosé Champagne? It was, after all, the Manila Hotel’s famous Champagne Room, newly refurbished and as beautiful as ever.
Champagne rosé it wasn’t, but the Casillero del Diablo Brut Reserva 2013, laced with crème de cassis de Dijon for a delicious take on the classic kir royale. The Brut Reserva would make an appearance again later in the evening, but for the moment it was doing a great job as base for the evening’s apéritif. The occasion was the Concha y Toro appreciation dinner for restaurateurs, chefs and corporate clients. And as was fitting for the event, the top brass of Fly Ace Corp., the exclusive importer of Concha y Toro in the Philippines, and José Tomás Cancino, Concha y Toro Southeast Asia regional manager, were present to meet the winery’s loyal supporters.
“This hotel is full of history, isn’t it?” José Tomás was visibly impressed by the grandeur of the Champagne Room, noting the crystal palm trees and the ornate ceiling lamps. Construction of The Manila Hotel began in 1898 and was completed four years later, and it formally launched with great pomp and ceremony in 1908.
Viña Concha y Toro shares the same 19th-century beginnings. It was established in 1883 by Don Melchor Concha y Toro, a businessman who regularly traveled to Europe from his native Chile. On one of his trips to France, he brought back vine cuttings from Bordeaux and planted it on his estate in the Maipo Valley, marking the beginning of one of Chile’s most storied wineries. But even earlier, the Concha y Toro family had merited a historical footnote when the title of “marqués” was conferred on the family in 1718 by King Felipe the V of Spain. It was in tribute to that honor that the Marqués de Casa Concha wines were created.
In a happy synchronicity of choices and decisions, the Marqués de Casa Concha made it to the dinner at the Champagne Room as the highlighted wines on the menu. And in an even happier turn of events, I was requested (by Fly Ace Corp., through its Senior Wine Supervisor Isay Miranda) to do the wine and food pairing. One doesn’t turn down the opportunity to work with a Marqués, especially this one.
The Marqués de Casa Concha wines are produced in limited quantities from fruit sourced from single vineyards. The grapes are, therefore, grown in prime, estate-owned vineyards in locations ideal for the particular grape variety.
Gifted winemaker Marcelo Papa has been in charge of crafting the Marqués wines since 1999. Under his direction, the Marqués de Casa Concha range have earned praise from wine critics and merited the most prestigious awards in the industry.
The sparkling wine is going with the soup, not with the starter? But I thought the Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc 2015 would begin dinner on an even higher note. Bright, fresh and zesty with notes of guava and arugula, it would be a better foil for the creaminess of the cauliflower panna cotta and lobster in a composed salad. Besides, the salad’s basil dressing would mirror the same green notes of Sauvignon Blanc.
But José Tomás was still looking over the menu and the wine matches. Was there doubt with the pairings? Table talk stopped for a moment as he tasted the cauliflower panna cotta-lobster duo with the Sauvignon Blanc. That was okay, his smile seemed to say.
There was an even longer pause as he took a spoonful of the soup and a sip of the bubbly. There was a lot more going on in the green pea soup: poached quail egg, truffle oil, crisp pancetta. I was going more for texture here—silky softness against the prickle of bubbles. Not a word yet from José Tomás. How was he going to take the soup and Casillero Brut 2013 pairing?
And then he broke into an even bigger smile. Relief. The match, he said, was a winner. And so were the rest of the pairings after that. Roasted Chilean sea bass and the Marqués de Casa Concha Chardonnay 2013. Grilled Australian veal rack with the Marqués de Casa Concha Carmenère 2012. The menu of Executive Chef Konrad Walter featured straightforward flavors that were bold, yet refined. The Marqués wines amplified or mirrored those flavors brilliantly. These are, after all, food-friendly wines that have also consistently breached the 90-points scoring of critics. (The March 2015 edition of Decanter magazine, cited the Marqués de Casa Concha Chardonnay 2012 as one of the best Chardonnays in the world.) It was the Marqués Chardonnay 2013 that was a revelation that evening—rich, creamy, intense, redolent of lemon curd and toasted nuts. The Chardonnay grapes come from the Llanuras de Camarico, a single vineyard in the Limari Valley, known for its alluvial terraces and chalky soils. Manually harvested and barrel-fermented, the wine is then aged on the lees for 11 months in a combination of new and used Burgundian oak barrels.
But it was the Marqués Carmenère 2012 that stole the show, segueing effortlessly from pairing with the meat course and then with dessert—the Champagne Room’s signature Ohaina Chocolate Gateau. Aged 18 months in French oak, the fruit is also meticulously hand-harvested from select parcels in Peumo, an area noted for Carmenère. Dense and spicy with notes of black ripe fruit, eucalyptus and dark mocha, the wine backed up the heft of grilled meat, yet was elegant enough to ride on the flavors of a bitter-sweet dessert.
Concha y Toro is known to over-deliver at every category, José Tomás had said, when he talked about the merits of the wines. The Marqués de Casa Concha had just proven that exceeding all expectations is also part of the equation.