Muristek
Interesting wines from vineyards along the entire length of Chile are coming along a treat
Viña Leyda Single Vineyard Garuma Sauvignon Blanc, Leyda, Chile 2020, £12, Tesco I have a feeling that not all that many people regard Chilean wine as the sort of thing you’d buy as a treat or for a special occasion. The country has, for as long as I can remember, been very good at providing the sort of Good Cheap Wines I was writing about in this space last week. But on those occasions when you want to break what is still for most UK wine-drinkers the psychologically powerful £10 barrier, the (sometimes spurious) reassurance of a more famously ‘fine’ wine producing region – France, Italy, but also California and Australia – tends to be the default option. Increasingly, however, I’m coming across Chilean wines that have that hard-to-define little extra that makes a wine worth shelling out a few quid more for: that bit of extra verve, complexity, character, or concentration to make them stand out from their cheaper peers. Viña Leyda’s bracing, bristling, lime and pea-pod-scented, seafood-friendly sauvignon is certainly one such wine.
Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Pinot Noir, Aconcagua Valley, Chile 2020, from£16, oxfordwine.co.uk; stonevine.co.uk; cellarselected.com Viña Leyda was one of the earliest producers to emerge from one of the most important developments in Chilean wine in the past 20 years: the rush to plant vineyards along the country’s long Pacific coastline. These vineyards have worked wonders on the quality of Chilean wines made from grape varieties that prefer cooler conditions than those that can be found in much of the traditional Chilean grape-growing regions, inland along the Central Valley south of Santiago. The cooling Pacific breezes help preserve the necessary acidity that gives the best sauvignon blancs, but also chardonnays and rieslings, their balancing lift and zip. Another of these new coastal vineyard areas can be found a couple of hours to the north of Leyda, in Aconcagua Costa, where one of Chilean wines biggest names, Errazuriz, has established a vineyard that makes some of Chile’s (and South America’s) finest, chiselled chardonnay and beautifully expressive, supple pinot noir.
Continue reading...