2022 Ventisquero "Tara" Chardonnay, Huasco Valley, Atacama, Chile
Regular price $46.00
Unit price per
100% Chardonnay
It’s a fresh, high acid, mineral driven 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 they attribute this to its very particular and unique terroir. 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.
Founded in 1998 by meat impresario Gonzalo Vial, Ventisquero is one of the largest wineries in Chile. Ventisquero is a Spanish word that means snowdrift or hanging glacier, honoring the dramatic glaciers found in the Patagonia region. Ventisquero is based in Maipo and sources grapes from vineyards ranging from Atacama in the north to the main valleys in the south. In Colchagua, however, Ventisquero works at a very interesting vineyard in Apalta, with vines planted in ravines and mountain slopes. Each bottle is a tribute to its terroir, from the most extreme, like the Atacama Desert, to wines born in the Andes Mountains of central Chile, and valleys where the Pacific Ocean leaves its powerful imprint. This has resulted in bold, extreme wines, as well as classic and traditional ones—a range as varied as the terroirs and climates of Chile.
In the north of Chile, “vintage variation” is virtually non-existent. Year after year, the harvest dates are more or less the same with the grapes being picked in early March. In the part of the Huasco Valley where the Longomilla and Nicolasa vineyards are situated, the dense fog known as "camanchaca” blankets the land each day. This fog comes in from the Pacific Ocean, just 15-20 km to the west. In the desert climate, the moisture from this daily fog provides the vine leaves with a small but important increase in humidity.