Winemaker Notes

It’s a fresh, nervous, mineral wine. The mouth is tense and well-structured. The chalkiness and salinity of the soil come through in the palate. The nose reveals fruit, such as sweet cucumbers and apricots, as well as floral notes. As you sip the wine, it evolves in the glass. This is not a classic style of Chardonnay and we attribute this to its very particular and unique terroir.

To make this bottling, the grapes are foot crushed and fermented with native yeast, and aged only in stainless steel. Stirring the sediment and not letting the wine settle too much allows them to bottle with the fine lees, offering a bit of built-in protection for the wine. But this also gives it a cloudy appearance. Letting the wine open in the glass, the struck flint aromas move into a stony character, with the fruit ranging from crisply ripe apple & nectarine to plump citrus. Mid-bodied, with a soft mid-palate, and the acidity firmly underscoring the juicy fruit, driving it into the lengthy finish. The toasty nut quality comes from the fine lees, as they block malolactic fermentation from occurring (no buttery or oaky Chardonnay here!).

The Pacific Ocean has a major influence on the vineyard, producing morning fog, known locally as the “Camanchaca,” and strong winds, which cool the vines, making this a desert with cool climate conditions. The area is very arid and the soils are chalky and saline.

Vineyard Notes

This is a distinctive Chardonnay from the extreme wine region of the coastal Huasco Valley, on the border of the famous Atacama Desert in northern Chile. This is a semi-arid land of cacti, though it's known as the "garden of Atacama" for the old olive trees and vines for Pisco production. It's an appropriate place for Ventisquero to make their small-production, low intervention line of wines.

Because we love the Earth and its fruits, all of us at Ventisquero Wine Estates are committed to respecting and caring for our environment. Our production processes are subject to strict quality control and environmental protection standards. The winery voluntarily underwent auditing to gain “Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile” status, Chile's first ever certification exclusively for the wine industry. Until 2012, this certification only covered the performance of the green area (vineyards) and at that time, Ventisquero Wine Estates was the only winery to obtain certification for 100% of its vineyards.

Unfiltered

Sustainable