2016 Viña Doña Javiera, Sauvignon Blanc, Maipo Valley, Chile

Vina Dona Javiera

Viña Doña Javiera has a history of winemaking that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The family was one of the first to recognise the potential of the Maipo Valley and begun planting vines there in 1942. Located at El Monte, 50 kilometres west of Santiago, a site which gives its name to their Monte Verde range, with exposure to cooling Pacific breezes, this vineyard is blessed with a superb climate for viticulture. The winery has a capacity for 1.5 million litres and the plantings include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carménère, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay vines.

Viña Doña Javiera only produces wine from its own vineyard, with grapes hand-harvested after a strict selection process. Award-winning Chilean winemaker Felipe de Solminihac, ensures his wines have an impressive purity of fruit, delicate aromas and excellent structure.

Maipo

Maipo Valley, the northernmost within Central Valley, is one of Chile's most prominent wine regions. It is located east of San Antonio and Casablanca Valley and north of Rapel Valley, and is nestled between two mountain ranges, the Andes and the Coastal Mountains, with Chile's capital city, Santiago, sitting in the middle.

Maipo is renown for its exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon, ripe, subtle, spicy and complex with its signature, powerful eucalyptus and blackcurrant flavours. It amounts for over 60% of the regions 10,000ha. Merlot, Chardonnay and Carmenere are also important.

Maipo plays host to several major, quality Chilean wine companies, including Almaviva, Concha y Toro, William Fevre, Santa Rita, De Martino
 

Sauvignon Blanc

An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp  Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.

It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.

In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.

It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.