This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for Chilean Chardonnay under £15 went to Pandolfi Price, Los Patricios Chardonnay, Itata Valley 2010 (14%)
Tasted against:
- No other Golds in this category
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In the Northern zone of Chile’s Southern Region, itata has a viticultural history stretching back to colonial times, and today old, rugged bush vines jostle for space with modern-day vineyards.
The Pandolfi Price family bought its Santa inés vineyards in 2002. The property is in the foothills of the Andes, about 80km east of Concepción, and totals around 145 hectares, 25ha of which are dry-farmed Chardonnay vines – the source of this Trophy winner. Just 3,200 bottles are made, a large proportion of this boutique operations’s 5,000-bottle annual production.
‘The southern location of the vineyards makes it very challenging to produce wine because of the hazard of frosts every spring,’ explains Enzo Pandolfi Price. ‘But on the other hand it allowsthe grapes to mature slowly in the months leading up to harvest which take place in the first weeks of April.’
Until 2007 he sold all of his fruit to a larger Chilean producer, but in 2008 he finally took the plunge and, along with winemaker François Massoc, produced the debut vintage.
The wine is named in honour of Pandolfi Price’s grandfather, Patricio. And with Patricio stemming from the word for father, it is also a reflection that being the company’s first wine, it is the ‘father of the vineyard’.
Written by Decanter
