Caliterra

Winemaker Comment

Our Caliterra Reserva Chardonnay it’s a brilliant and lively young wine that has a soft yellow color with slightly amber hues. Its vivacious flavor and aroma has luscious tropical notes like guayaba and banana, with delicate undertones of wood that gives complexity to the wine. Its pleasant acidity provides lingering persistency, depth and easy to drink. Best to taste within a couple of years.

Vintage Notes

The essentially rain-free weather conditions during the 2008–2009 winegrowing season were particularly amenable to producing healthy fruit. The first half of the season (October–December) showed a decrease in the mean temperatures with respect to those registered during the 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 seasons, primarily due to a drop in average temperatures. The second half of the season (January–April), on the other hand, presented higher than usual average monthly high temperatures. The month of March was particularly warm, with several spikes in temperature that topped 32ºC (90ºF). As a result of these conditions, the harvest took place just 4 to 7 days earlier than in an average year. Water management was essential for keeping the canopies active and preventing physiological blockages. Polygonal Work in the vineyard was also crucial throughout the season and consisted of making a rational separation by heterogeneity within the different plots to reflect the variances generated by the diversity present in the soils. We use the latest technology and multispectral images to determine the state of maturity on a plant by plant basis and then harvest uniform sectors of fruit that are taken to the cellar and begin their own route to the bottle rather than being mixed into a mass of grapes of varying degrees of ripeness. This requires a very close degree of separation of sub-lots, such as occurs naturally the variations of the soil beneath the plants.

Fermentation and Aging

The Chardonnay is the most versatile and friendly white grape variety. It can undergo any winemaking process. Reductive fermentation in stainless steel tanks, oxidative aging, aging in wood barrels for 6 months (50% of the wine), batonage, and no malolactic fermentation this year, were some of the techniques used to successfully create a pleasant and drinkable wine characterized by a varied array of aromas. There is no a fixed process but a dynamic adaptation to the conditions of the harvest and the characteristics of the season. All this diversity enhances the complexity of this wine.