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Chardonnay Las Pizarras, Viña Errazuriz 2019

RegionChile
Subregion Chile
ColourWhite
TypeStill
Grape VarietyChardonnay

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Label

Tasting Notes

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.

98
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, February 2020

“Since its first release in 2014, Las Pizarras has established itself as one of the southern hemisphere’s greatest Chardonnays. Pithy, stony and saline, with levels of acidity that wouldn’t look out of place in Chablis, this is wonderfully intense and complex, even at this stage in its development. Aniseed, sea salt, lemon and struck match flavours combine beautifully on the palate, embellished by 20% new wood.”

97
Tim Atkin MW, timatkin.com, April 2021

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.

97
Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate (256), August 2021

Another belter from this brilliant vineyard in 2019. The nose is saline and tense, with lemon, struck flint toasted spices and citrus curd. The palate is steely and vertical, with a line of mouthwatering acidity through the middle providing both structure and freshness. Pithy citrus fruit is spicy, peppery and smoky - fleshing out through the mid palate. This unfurls from a tight coil to a driven, powerful and long finish. There is great potential here in this wonderfully delineated and powerful yet savoury wine. Excellent.

96+
Farr Vintners, Farr Tasting, September 2021
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.