2013 Chardonnay, Falernia, Coquimbo, Chili, Elqui Valley

Viña Falernia was founded in 1997 by Aldo Olivier Gramola and his cousin, Giorgio Flessati, a seasoned winemaker from the Trentino region in Northern Italy. Located in the Elqui Valley, between La Serena and Vicuña, 470km to the north of Santiago, its 320 hectares are spread over three vineyard sites, and are Chile’s northernmost wine estate.

The brand new winery is completely equipped with state of the art technology. Underground cellars for barrel ageing (French and American) complete the set, along with the latest bottling plant facility. Sauvignon, Viognier, Syrah and Carmenère are all of world-beating quality as their regular successes at the Annual Wines of Chile Awards confirm.

Grapes have been hand-picked into small bins, de-stemmed, crushed and placed in a pneumatic press, where they were cold macerated for 12 hours at 10ºC.The juice has been extracted at low pressure, clarified and fermented partially in stainless steel tanks and partially in French oak barrels with selected yeasts, left there to mature for around 6 months. When the barrel fermented wine is racked, the barrels were filled with stainless steel fermented wine that is matured there for another 3 months. Wine from different casks is blended together, clarified and bottled. The blend is with approximately 5-10% of barrel fermented wine and the balance of stainless steel fermented wine.