Montes Alpha Chardonnay is a bright golden-yellow wine with vibrant aromas of tropical fruits such as pink grapefruit, papaya and lychee, complemented with subtle notes of smoke and vanilla. Its medium body and fresh, vibrant acidity will leave you with a delightful, lengthy finish. The rich texture of this wine is perfect with a Gammon Joint as well as white meat in creamy sauces.

About the Producer

Montes Wines was established in 1988 after the addition of two further partners, Alfredo Vidaurre and Pedro Grand to the original visionary partners, Aurelio Montes and Douglas Murray.  Murray and Montes both had extensive experience in the world of wine and wished to make their dream come true of being the people responsible for raising the bar for the quality of wine production in Chile.  The four men all made exemplary contributions to creating and establishing 'Discover Wine Ltda' now known as Viña Montes.

Aurelio Montes has since said of their venture "The Viña Montes adventure was almost a retirement project for us. We wanted to make a small, boutique-type vineyard to entertain ourselves the day we were definitely retired and that would also allow us to show off good wines in international markets."

Vineyard and Winery

The vineyards for this wine are in the Casablanca region, where cool breezes and proximity to the Pacific Ocean produce ideal conditions for the Chardonnay to ripen slowly and fully. The sites are irrigated via a sustainable system, pioneered by Aurelio and his team, which allows for extremely precise and minimal irrigation. The varied sandy and loam soils lend this wine tremendous complexity. The main clones used are Dijon 76 and Clone 95, the former contributing tropical fruit and citrus, and the latter lending depth and producing exceptionally concentrated grapes. The vineyards are vertically trained and drip irrigated, with yields usually less than 9,000 kg per hectare.

The grapes were harvested by hand into 300 kg containers. Harvest was carried out early in the morning to maintain the lowest possible temperature in the grapes until their arrival at the winery. Upon arrival, the fruit underwent a combination of whole bunch pressing, pressing of destemmed grapes and cold maceration for several hours, allowing the team to play with the aromatic extraction from the skins and level of structure. Fermentation took place at controlled temperatures of between 13°C and 14°C, for around 25 days. Malolactic conversion was allowed to take place, to increase both softness and volume on the palate, and also giving the wine greater texture and complexity. Finally, the wine was filtered before being bottled.

Visit the Montes website