Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I found the 2019 Max Chardonnay to be excellent and very affordable. It was produced with grapes from their Aconcagua Costa vineyards, picked early in the morning, the whole clusters pressed and the juice fermented in French oak barrels, 20% of them new, where the wine matured for 10 months. Approximately 30% of the volume went through malolactic fermentation. The wine has an austere profile that I like, and despite the oak and the warmer year, the wine comes through as fresh, with good ripeness, moderate alcohol (13.5%) and notable acidity. There is purity and precision here, the flavors are pristine and the finish long and mineral. This has to be one of the best Chardonnays in its price range.
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James Suckling
Vibrant, attractive peaches and pears and a succulent palate that has a tart-citrus finish. 150th anniversary edition.
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.
The Aconcagua River runs east from the charming costal town of Valparaiso and bisects the land creating the valley after which it was named. While alluvial soils predominate the Aconcagua Valey along its river throughout, its east-west flow creates drastically different conditions on each of its ends. Its western, seaside vineyards, with clay and stony soils upon gently rolling hills, produce cool-climate varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Its inner region is one of Chile’s hottest and produces some of its best red wines. Panquehue in the inner Aconcagua is the site of Chile’s first Syrah vines, planted in 1993.