Miguel Torres Cordillera Chardonnay, Valle de Limari

Description

Miguel Torres Cordillera Chardonnay is a barrel fermented Chardonnay from the Limari Valley. It is labelled as Reserva Especial.

Miguel Torres first acquired a small winery in Curicó, in the Chilean central valley, in 1979. It was the first foreign company to back Chilean vineyard production. After almost thirty years, those original 100 hectares have turned into 445 hectares of vineyards owned by the company itself. The excellent climate conditions for cultivating grape vines, with great temperature differences between night and day and lands free of grape phylloxera, have contributed to the fact that sublime wines are being made in lands from where one can view the greatness of the Andes, crowned by snow and a noble beauty. As of 2010 Miguel Torres Chile is directed by Miguel Torres Maczassek, a fifth generation Torres winemaker who moved to Chile with his family in order to maintain the tradition and passion for winemaking that the Torres family has demonstrated for over a hundred years.

There have been vines in the Valle de Limari since the mid-16th century, but it has only recently become a fashionable wine growing area. Every morning the cooling Camanchaca fog creeps into the valley from the Pacific Ocean, the fog dissappears as the sun rises and the vineyard have clear, pure light for the rest of the day. This, coupled with less than 4 inched of rainfall per year, means the vines dig deep into the mineral-rich soil, produces fresh wines with a distinct mineral edge.

Miguel Torres Cordillera Chardonnay is a unique, exclusive wine, made from three excellent clones of Chardonnay each with different organoleptic characteristics. The grapes are whole bunch pressed, macerated cold, then fermented in 50% French oak casks and 50% stainless steel. The wine is aged for 10 months, 45% in stainless steel and 55% in French oak casks (9% new, 46% second and third fill).