Winemaker Notes
Expressive, aromatic, round in the mouth, and mineral. Strong fruit character in line with varietal archetype, with lush acidity and soft melon sweetness on the middle palate. Finish is clean, fresh, and telling of great potential for in-bottle evolution.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The Laurel Vineyard consistently delivers on of Chile's best sauvignon blancs - a rich, ripe wine from the cold coast. The 2008 season was warmer than usual, yielding a wine with intense aromas of peaches and pears. Its substantial depth is balanced by mineral-edged acidity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Laurel Vineyard is more fruit forward with passion fruit and minerality playing a primary role. It is a bit rounder and richer, likely due to a different elevation and micro terroir than the Cipreses bottling.
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Wine Spectator
Pure and chiseled, with a nice stony note pushing the lime, chive, jalapeño and mineral notes. The long taut finish is very precise.
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
Its rolling, coastal hills encouraged great investment in the 1990s from those in search of a cooler grape growing environment compared to those found in Chile’s Central Valley. All of the vineyards of the San Antonio Valley, which runs north to south and parallel to the coast, experience the cooling effect of the ocean and are made of vine-loving clay and granitic soils. While Sauvignon Blanc put this valley on the Chilean wine map, high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are emerging and some producers are starting to experiment with sparkling wine.