Winemaker Notes
Light and harmonious. Tropical aromas such as pineapple, as well as notes of white flowers. Vibrant with a refreshing acidity.
Pair with fish, seafood, white meats, cream-based sauces and Asian food.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of green berries and lime citrus. Elegant on the palate with bright, mouthwatering acidity. Elegant and incisive but not lacking any texture. A low-alcohol chardonnay with just 9% alcohol. Early picking and special yeast used. A very successful low-alcohol wine.
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Vinous
The 2022 Chardonnay Crios Sustentia Bajo Alcohol from the Uco Valley is steely in hue. The nose offers hints of pear and a touch of pineapple. Delicate in the mouth with malic structure and simple, satisfying flavor, this is a well thought out wine.
After 22 years of winemaking, Susana Balbo has a strong sense of what she wants from her wines. From every harvest, she creates the grandest possible wines under her Susana Balbo label. To achieve this, she makes a rigorous selection of the finest barrels prior to making her final blends, dividing them into the parents (reserve level wines) and offspring or "crios."
Wines under her Crios label display ripe fruit flavors, excellent balance and concentration, and are meant to be enjoyed in their vibrant youth. These wines are produced under Dominio del Plata's code of sustainable agriculture.
Like Susana's own crios (a boy and a girl), they are extremely lovable and fun to be around. The label features a series of three connected and overlapping hands, an image inspired by a Mayan artifact. The artifact illustrates the interconnectedness of every generation, and the irony that we will be both the parent and the offspring at different times in our lives.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
With a winning combination of cool weather, high elevation and well-draining alluvial soils, it is no surprise that Mendoza’s Uco Valley is one of the most exciting up-and-coming wine regions in Argentina. Healthy, easy-to-manage vines produce low yields of high-quality fruit, which in turn create flavorful, full-bodied wines with generous acidity.
This is the source of some of the best Malbec in Mendoza, which can range from value-priced to ultra-premium. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay also perform well here.