While Chile has for over a decade trying to position themselves as the next place for Sauvignon Blanc, focusing on coastal sites and the extreme South, it still has not happened for them. There are delicious wines to be found, but here in the states it is a challenge to compete with not only our domestic wines, but the wines the Loire Valley and New Zealand too. And then for more than 20 years Rafael Tirado has quietly been making the best Sauvignon Blanc on the Continent. Located in Colbun, which is in the foothills of the Andes in the Maule region. This is a special place to grow grapes and make wine, it is tucked away next to lake Colbun and surrounded by alpine forests. The soil here is very stony and colluvial, mostly of volcanic origin. It is that combination of mountain lake environment and those stony soils that create one of the most delicious Sauvignon Blancs in the world. This wine does everything; the fruit is ripe, it has body and texture, and has very little of the green character that the varietal is known for. At the same time, the fruit's character is cool and restrained, the wine has high acidity and intense minerality. It comes across as both “new world” and “old world” at the same time. It is hard to think of other wines that do this, you normally find a “new world’ wine with an “old world” character, or vice versa, but not both at the same time. I love mineral driven white wines; I love that this is a mineral driven Sauvignon Blanc that is so unlike the classic mineral driven version of the varietal from the Loire. This has a volcanic minerality character closer to something from Mt. Etna or the Canary Islands. Rather than the limestone and flint of Sancerre. It is not all minerality, the fruit is mostly citrus driven but there is a hard to pin down exotic quality to it, both on the nose and the palate. The wine is intense and long, with all the aromatics and flavors playing against the cool acid driven minerality. This is a food wine. If you are an acid head, like me, it is a killer aperitif, but the combination of the citrus driven fruit, the texture and the acid make this a great wine to pair with a meal.

This very bright, think Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc is a real winner and a real bargain. Extremely clean and pure with lemon, ripe grapefruit, sea salt, and generous minerality. The long finish even has some Key Lime pie flavors. Totally and completely delicious!