Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 13
I'm an avid drinker of agave spirits and have spent a
fair share of time in Mexico. So when I put my nose
in these glasses of sauvignon blanc, I was taken aback
by scents I associate with agave-bright, fresh lime
juice and a rock-salt salinity. They reminded me,
frankly, of Margaritas, and I was ready to move on.
Then another taster suggested that agave, lime and
salinity are precisely the terroir expression of Chile's
far coast, a sunny, almost desert-dry clime scented by
the mist off the Pacific. Those green tones, along with
the cooling acidity did give the wines a very specific
character. I needed to know more.
As it turns out, Chile's wine regions were long ago
classified into six areas from north to south, but that
premise recently has been superseded by newer eastwest designations that consider the topographical
influences as you move from the Andes down to the
Pacific: Andes, Entre Cordilleras and Costa. Traditionally, most of Chile's vineyards have been planted
against the foothills of the Andes range (the Andes
region) or the hot valley below (Entre Cordilleras, or
"between the mountains"). The head-turning sauvignon blancs I had been tasting came from Costa, the
vineyards nearest to the coastline.
Coastal vineyards didn't exist in Chile until 1982,
when Pablo Morandé, moonlighting from his day job
as chief winemaker at Concha y Toro, planted sauvignon blanc in the Casablanca Valley. It took a while
for people to start to realize he was on to something:
Thanks to the Humboldt Current, the Pacific Ocean
is especially cold here, and the strong, cool breezes
it sends inland can stress the vines. Morandé's wines
showed that, in the case of sauvignon blanc, the cool
climate was a good thing, and since then, winemakers have moved out to the coast, both south to San
Antonio Valley and north into coastal Aconcagua and
Limarí. Major producers such as Concha y Toro and
Errazuriz have planted ever closer to the ocean, and
a number of smaller projects have accessed irrigation
rights to plant their own far-coast vines.
I asked Patricio Tapia, our critic for Chilean wine,
to recommend some sauvignon blancs that stand
out for their coastal character so I could explore further. Errazuriz grows its Aconcagua Costa Sauvignon
Blanc in the Manzanar Vineyard, planted in 2005 and
2009 just seven miles from the ocean. The vineyard
Sauvignon blanc vines at Kingston Family Vineyards in southwestern Casablanca, where fog
rolls in from the Pacific.
Agave, lime
and salinity are
precisely the terroir
expression of
Chile's far coast,
a sunny, almost
desert-dry clime
scented by the mist
off the Pacific.
WINE & SPIRITS
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13
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018
Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 5
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 6
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 7
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 8
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 9
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 10
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 11
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 12
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 13
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 14
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 15
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 16
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 17
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 18
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 19
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 20
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 21
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 22
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 23
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 24
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 25
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 26
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 27
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 28
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 29
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 30
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 31
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 32
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 33
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 34
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 35
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 36
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 37
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 38
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 39
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 40
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 41
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 42
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 43
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 44
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 45
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 46
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 47
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 48
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 49
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 50
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 51
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 52
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 53
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 54
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 55
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 56
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 57
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 58
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 59
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 60
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 61
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 62
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 63
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 64
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 65
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 66
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 67
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 68
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 69
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 70
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 71
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 72
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover4
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