Errazuriz Las Pizarras Chardonnay 2019 (750ML)

98 JS / 97 WA

#5 James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Chile 2020
#74 James Suckling Top 100 Wines of 2020

A complex, structured young chardonnay and clearly the best in Chile. It shows lavender, sliced green apples, white peaches, flint and stone. Quince. Sea wood. Cement. Salt. Very complex. Full-bodied, yet very tight with a linear, compressed palate. Energetic acidity. Endless finish. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

The effervescent palate and the intensely mineral and salty character defines the 2019 Las Pizarras Chardonnay from the Aconcagua Costa appellation, which makes it one of the finest, most elegant and complex whites from South America. The parameters here are mind boggling: 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.01 and 8.47 grams of acidity measured in tartaric acid, which means contained ripeness, austerity and exceptional freshness, which they achieved through a very early harvest and only partial malolactic. The grapes ripened slowly given the cooler temperatures of February and March and were picked between the 21st and 26th of February. It was not that warm in Aconcagua Costa, where it was moderately warm after a really cold 2018. The whole clusters were pressed, the juice put to decant naturally and then fermented in French barriques (19% of them 400-liter and new), where it matured for 13 months. Like the rest of the barrel-fermented Chardonnays, there is no trace of oak, and the wine has a subtle and elegant profile, with complexity and depth despite its young age. One-fourth of the volume went through malolactic fermentation, and the wine has volume, length and freshness. It’s crystalline and symmetric and has terrific balance and all the ingredients for a nice development in bottle. It’s elegant and subtle, more serious and less exuberant than in cooler years. It has a long and dry finish with a mineral and saline sensation that makes it very tasty, with citrus notes in the aftertaste. This is superb, more like the 2017 and 2015. Somehow, this wine seems to work better in warmer years. 5,144 bottles were filled in May 2020. - Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate