Review: Leyda Sauvignon Blanc

The Leyda Valley, located along Chile's Pacific coast, has gained fame for its cool-climate wines, including Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. 

This winery produces three different Sauvignon Blanc wines with the Reserva being their entry-level expression. If you enjoy New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc this wine is for you at a remarkable $15 ($18 in BC).

It has a potent nose and palate straight out of the gate. The requisite notes of black currant, gooseberry and fresh cut grass are there in abundance along with tropical fruit notes (guava, passionfruit) and a prominent lime throughline to the medium long finish.

To preserve the youthful freshness and brightness of the fruit, this wine was not aged in barrels but instead made in stainless steel tanks. It has a certain creaminess, having sat on its own lees (spent yeast) for four months with weekly batonnage (stirring with a large wooden paddle).

This wine is nothing short of bombastic in aromas and flavours and in fact I enjoyed it more the day after it had been opened. Its more strident edges had softened and this provided a rounder mouthfeel.

It goes with all those things you think of when you think of Sauvignon Blanc: oysters (most definitely) with mignonette and ceviche with an assortment of seafood and even some mango to pair with all those tropical fruit notes in the wine.

As of this writing there are approximately 560 bottles in the Ottawa market.