2021 LAS FERMENTADAS SEMIMADURO SEMILLON

Producer: Las Fermentadas

Wine: 2021 Semimaduro

Vineyard: Semillon, Chasselas and Moscatel de Alejandría from three different cool-climate sites in Itata. In transition - first year working with Semillon grower Two Lucho.

 75% Semillon, 20% Chasselas, 5% Moscatel de Alejandría

An orange wine, aged on skins for 10 months in ancient original Chilean amphorae, a quartz heavy, porous, thousand litre, flat based pot. 

The winemaking was lead by Isi Munita, a raw-milk cheesemaker, she wanted to build a wine of structural and corporal integrity and integrated acidity to be able to match with funky and hard cheeses. Semimaduro means semi-hard and also semi-ripe, the Sem was picked a bit riper intentionally. All grapes were hand destemmed on the zaranda to retain a lot of whole berry and ensure a long cold ferment and gentle extraction of the tannin.Old vine Semillon from Guarilihue was aged in an original tinaja (this one is an 800litre clay vessel, potentially 200 years old, and is still impecable) on her skins for about ten months. We blended in a little Chasselas (locally called Corinto, it’s been here since the nineteenth century) and Moscatel de Alejandría (Chile’s first white grape). We wanted to use Chile’s most endemic and phenotypically unique white grapes to build an orange wine that would hold up to funky cheese. We picked a little later for body, we destemmed using the zaranda to retain as much whole berry as possible and hopefully achieve a gentle extraction over the year on skins, we added some barrel-aged juice for mouthfeel.

Some So2 at crushing only. 

Bottled with some well integrated fine lees for creamy texture.