Casas del Bosque La Cantera Sauvignon Blanc 2022
Pale straw color with greenish hues. Layers of aromas of grapefruit, boxwood and passion fruit. On palate the wine is dry and crisp, with some ripe fruit and a refreshing acidity. There is an extremely subtle minerality that reminds of flint. Finishes long. Ideally served at 6 – 8ºC/43 – 46°F with shellfish (oysters), grilled fish or strongly flavored fish preparations such as sardines. Herbs like chives, cilantro or parsley. Green olives, chutney and all types of goat cheese.
92 points Vinous
90 points James Suckling
This single vineyard wine comes from Casas del Bosque´s estate, located within the “Las Dichas” side of Casablanca Valley, in the coolest, westernmost part. The vines where planted between 2003 and 2014, and are equipped with drip irrigation. Crop levels average 3.4 t/a. After harvest, the grapes were crushed in a pneumatic press. Only the free run juice was used for this wine – the rest was declassified for use in the Reserva. Juice coming from the “La Cantera” block is submitted for juice stabilization, an enzymatic process in which the lees are stirred many times per day for 5 -10 days at a controlled temperature. The fruit coming from the “Olivo Camino” block underwent a short maceration inside the press (6-8 hours), after which the free run juice was drained into tank. All the components spent 2 months of elevage over inactivated yeasts before being blended. After blending, the wine was clarified, cold stabilized and filtered. The first bottling was on July 5th, 2022, and total production was of 4,400 cases.
Casas del Bosque´s flagship variety is undoubtedly Sauvignon Blanc. In 2019, they started working with consultant Sam Harrop, Master of Wine, originally from New Zealand, with the intention of developing a wine that intrinsically reflects a “sense of place”. The ultimate goal was to create a Sauvignon Blanc that is an authentic – and distinct – reflection of Casablanca in a glass. The “La Cantera” blocks are on a hillside in the vineyard, near the quarry that gives the wine its name. The iron rich, ancient granite soils make for an ideal place to grow clone 242 (which makes up for about 70% of the wine) and clone 107 – both from France. The 2020 vintage in particular, comes from a slightly warmer and thus shows notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. The aromatics are intoxicating – intended to
propose a bit of novelty in a marketplace, that feels otherwise dominated by Marlborough and Sancerre renditions.
Frequent foggy mornings, warm days and cool nights characterize the valley. The average temperatures in
summer are 66ºF and in winter 51ºF. Mean diurnal shifts in March were around 55ºF. Yearly rainfall is around 15 inches, falling mostly between May and September.
