The wine of the month
Los Patricios, Chardonnay, 2017
4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP
December 2022: Los Patricios, Chardonnay, 2017 (25 EUR/30 USD in Sweden) white dry wine, Valle del Itata, Région del Sur, Chile, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points) (28-12-2022 by Nenad Jelisic)
If I should blind test this wonderful Chardonnay-wine, I would most likely say that it comes from the Meursault appellation in Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, France. The wine is without a doubt the best Chardonnay-wine that I have tasted from Chile so far. The aroma is big, complex and full-bodied. In it one will find browned butter, red apples, walnuts, cardamom and freshly baked brioche. The flavour is big, complex, full-bodied and fresh. In it one will find browned butter, freshly baked brioche, citrus fruits, cardamom and red apples. The aftertaste is very long and buttery.
Los Patricios Chardonnay 2017 can be aged up to 5 years, i.e., it can be aged up to 2027. It should be enjoyed at 6 to 8°C as an aperitif-wine or wine to hang out with friends from large Burgundy glasses, if possible, from Orrefors, Spiegelau or Riedel. Or with butter-fried salmon fillets, or grilled cod fillets brushed with tasty virgin olive oil, with buttery mashed potatoes, grilled red peppers, and white wine sauce or with oven-roasted corn chicken stuffed with smoked bacon, with grilled zucchini, grilled red peppers, oven-roasted thin potato slices in virgin olive oil and bearnaise sauce or with freshly baked brioche stuffed with Philadelphia-soft cheese and thin slices of cold smoked salmon.
The grapes that were used for this wine production come from the vines that were planted in 1992. The soils on which the vines for this wine grow consists of alluvial and volcanic soil as well as sand and clay. The soils like this are rich in minerals and has very good drainage properties, which means that the vines have to go very deep to find water. The grapes for the wine are hand-harvested and carefully selected in both the vineyard and when entering the winery. After the destemming and crushing process, the grape mass, which consists of pulp, skins and seeds, goes in a press machine. When the pressing is complete, the extracted must is poured into stainless steel tanks where it is fermented under a controlled temperature between 22 and 24 degrees. The fermenting must is then poured into French oak barrels for further fermentation, malolactic fermentation and finally aging. After the aging, the wine is bottled and aged for a few more weeks before it is released on the market. Only 5,900 bottles were produced of this vintage.