2020 Vino de Vinedo Los Parientes Chardonnay
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Tasting Notes
The warmth of the 2020 vintage, combined with the cool climate of Traiguén and Baettig’s trademark flinty, lean style, has created a gorgeous Los Parientes Chardonnay. Now with a few years in bottle, it’s drinking beautifully. The wine remains taut – dominated by vibrant citrus that drives through its core, the bright acidity brings incredible tension. Yet, there’s also a softness to the wine, with a suppleness to the palate and its ample riper stone fruit that flawlessly complements the mouthwatering zest of the long finish. This might be Baettig’s entry-level offering, but it punches well above its weight.
Compared to the 2019, the ripe citrus fruit is better integrated with the acidity. A cool vintage for the region produced a wine with lovely contrasting lemon and orchard fruit flavours with more savoury, earthy, lightly smoky, mineral tones. The wine has great tautness, and the vibrancy really lends persistence to the palate. Again, it has a very vertical Chablis-esque style that is beautifully balanced and refreshing.
Baettig ferments this wine in larger 400-litre barrels (10% new) so the oak doesn’t overpower the fruit. There’s a wonderful clarity here, retaining beautiful aromatic notes of fig, honeydew melon and lime. The texture is excellent for the price point with an impressive mid-palate richness. The oak provides a lovely rippling textural quality to the wine, while retaining a fantastic, vibrant acidic backbone giving lovely tension. The fruit flavours are fresh and have that New World pristine quality, but never verge on the tropical. Superb – and just 13% alcohol.
Critic Scores
Average Score
Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
This is fresh and direct with good acidity supporting fresh, incisive pineapple and lemon fruit. There’s a lovely brightness with some sour cherry notes on the finish and a twist of bitterness adding bite. Notes of honey and fine spiciness, too. Good acidity and concentration. Vivid.
This is a fine and also nicely phenolic expression of chardonnay, showing ripe lemon and some tangerine, dried peach, minerals, ginger and a lift of jasmine on the nose. Full-bodied and broad with some nice bite to the flavors. Rich and flavorful, but fresh, mineral and refined. So different from 2021. Give it a try. Drink or hold.
Los Parientes is what Francisco Baettig calls his "village level" wine, sourced from sevenyear-old vines on red clay soils. Lightly wooded in 10% new oak, with around a third of the wine going through malolactic, this is savoury and toasty, with notes of fresh bread and umami and a taut, mineral-edged core.
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About the producer
Baettig is the exciting project from leading winemaker Francisco Baettig (of Errázuriz fame). Crafting vibrant, site-expressive wines from Chile’s south, with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Malleco and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maule – this is one of the hottest names in South America.