2021 Herrera Alvarado, Chile - La Zaranda Sauvignon Blanc

Carolina Alvarado and Arturo Herrera are on a mission to preserve and revive the local wine traditions in Chile’s Marga Marga Valley, a relatively unknown appellation whose history of wine began with the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. This month’s selection is the couple’s biodynamically-farmed sauvignon blanc. The grapes are destemmed and crushed using a zaranda, an old-school grate that you rub the grape bunches over. Two days of maceration with the grape skins is followed by wild yeast fermentation in concrete tanks without temperature control. The wine then spends 17 months on the fine lees and is bottled without added sulfites. (The long lees aging protects the wine from oxidation.)

Citrus, mountain herbs, and smoke on the nose. There is a hint of reductiveness (flinty, matchstick aromas common in white wines made with limited exposure to oxygen, including some white Burgundy); it adds tension and complexity to the wine. Sauvignon’s signature citrus element is there, fleshed out with some richer fruits. The wine is more powerful and textural than a Loire Valley sauvignon blanc - and as complex as the best of them. You could decant the wine to bring out the complexity more quickly. Definitely drink it in a larger wineglass, perhaps with ají de gallina or salt and pepper tofu.