Baettig Chardonnay Seleccion de Parcelas los Primos 2021 750ml

The austere and tight 2021 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Chardonnay feels very young. It was harvested the second week of April, keeping very good freshness and acidity, with 13% alcohol, and there was part of the wine that he did not add any sulfur. He used 35% new 400-liter barrels, and the used ones are still 228-liter ones that eventually will be replaced with the used 400-liter ones in future years. There is great purity and symmetry; the oak is neatly integrated; and there’s nuance, detail and a superb juiciness in the palate and citrus acidity that makes you salivate. The palate is dry and mineral, serious, less Meursault and more Chablis… It’s persistent and long and has all the ingredients and balance between them to develop nicely in bottle. There was some frost, and only 3,480 bottles were produced. It was bottled in August 2022.

• Country: Chile
• Size: 750ml
• Color: White

Varietal

Chardonnay

Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one that has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is Chardonnay. This green-skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity, which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.