JM Roulot Made + Patagonia Terroir = Chacra Chardonnay

Bodega Chacra
Patagonia, Argentina

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VIDEO: Jean-Marc Roulot talks about how this collaboration with Chacra came to be at a dinner with some Burgundy legends. (video & photo credit: @grandcruselectons)

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Mainqué Chardonnay 2017 - 92 pts WA

  • 11 months in oak: 2 months fermentation, 9 months aging


  • 1st use French oak was 15%; 2nd/3rd use French oak for 85%


  • No malolactic fermentation

Done in collaboration with Jean-Marc Roulot, the grapes were picked early as the grapes ripened early but maintained acidity. Fermented in barrel without malolactic, spending 11 months in barrique, this has an up-front fruit, a salinity shared with Chacra Chardonnay, and a tasty finish lent by the calcareous components of the alluvial soil.

The 2017 Mainqué Chardonnay is the second white produced with grapes from their own and their partners’ vineyards that are worked by their own team since the wines are organic and biodynamic. It was picked early, as some peaks of extreme heat made the grapes ripen early on while keeping the acidity. It fermented in barrel and didn’t go through malolactic, reaching some 13% alcohol. The élevage was 11 months in barrique, in Damy barrels (some new and some used) that they took from Domaine Roulot in Burgundy. This has more up-front fruit, as the soils are deeper, but the common theme with the top Chardonnay is the salinity and the tasty finish lent by the calcareous components of the alluvial soils. Even though I expected this to have a sharper personality, it was more mellow.
92 pts WA - Luis Guttierez

$49.99, net, limited, BUY HERE: Chacra Chardonnay: JM Roulot Made + Patagonia Terroir



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Chacra Chardonnay 2017

  • 11 months in oak: 2 months fermentation, 9 months aging


  • 1st use French oak was 15%; 2nd/3rd use French oak for 85%


  • Full malolactic fermentation

Done in collaboration with Jean-Marc Roulot, this is a single-vineyard wine produced from 40-year-old vines in mineral soils with alluvial stones covered in calcaire. The wine is intense and energetic, high pitched and lively, round and austere, refined and mineral. It has a dry mouthfeel and a saltiness natural to the area.

They want to reserve the name Chacra for their top estate wines, so the top white is the 2017 Chacra Chardonnay. It was produced with the Burgundian barrel fermentation method, and the wine aged in barrels with the lees for some 11 months. They used about 15% new barrels, and the rest were used barriques from Roulot in Burgundy. They are now building their barrel collection, which they will reuse in future vintages. This was produced exclusively with the grapes from 40-year-old vines that were planted ungrafted with Merlot and late regrafted to Chardonnay, where they have very mineral soils with alluvial stones covered in calcaire. The wine is high pitched and livelier, like an upgraded version of their Mainqué Chardonnay, despite the fact that this top cuvée has gone through full malolactic. This is both rounder and more austere, if that makes sense, with only 12% alcohol, and it just has more intensity and more energy. It has the dry mouthfeel of the chalky texture from the soils and the tasty saltiness the zone tends to deliver. This is a most impressive debut, certainly the best Chardonnay from Río Negro and among the best in Argentina. I’m eager to follow the development of this bottling and the following vintages, as it’s unbelievably refined, mineral and intense for a first effort. So, when they get to know their vineyard better, I’m sure the wines will be even better. But it seems like they have found a special place to produce this wine… 1,350 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2018.
94+ pts WA - Luis Guttierez
$99.99 net, extremely limited, BUY HERE: http://bit.ly/ChacraRoulot

Also available great Chacra Pinot Noir & A killer value Merlot available for purchase: