This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for Chilean Chardonnay over £15 went to Calyptra, Chardonnay Gran Reserva, Cachapoal 2010 (14.5%)
Tasted against:
- No other Golds in this category
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Calyptra’s Santa Cruz de Coya estate was bought by plastic surgeon Dr José zahri in 1989, for recreational purposes. however, when he learned of its grape- growing heritage, the apple and pear trees on the land were uprooted and replaced with the first Chardonnay vines in 1993.
At 1,000m altitude, its vineyards are the highest in the Alto Cachapoal and experience challenging, cold winters and low yields. Under the guidance of winemaker François Massoc since 2007, Calyptra seems incapable of not winning awards, and this year also snared a Gold for its Sauvignon Blanc Gran Reserva.
Part of this success today is zahri’s son José luis, who moved back to Chile from the US as general manager. ‘our project is born from my father’s idea to do the best that we can with things that we love,’ José luis says. ‘his dream has always been to make a great wine, and particularly a great white wine. here we want to show the purity of our terroir and organic grapes. We aim to represent quality, craftsmanship, uniqueness and honesty but especially terroir identity. We never blend parcels of grapes, so this wine represents our best effort to make a unique, organic, pure single-vineyard wine.’
Written by Decanter
