2020 Alto Vuelo Estate Series Sauvignon Blanc Casablanca Valley Chile 750 ml

Chile’s Casablanca Valley is a collision of extremes. Its vineyards are closer to the equator than any European site, yet it channels wind currents from the Antarctic. The outcome of this grand climatic experiment: some of South America’s best examples of Sauvignon Blanc, like this 2020 from Alta Vuelo. It’s a bottle full of just-one-more-sip tension, crispness, and energy. 

Food & Wine called Chilean Sauvignon Blanc “The Most Interesting Wine of the Year” because of bottles like this—layered, texturally lush, and refreshing wines that maintaining the enticing juiciness we love in Chilean wine. 

Running east to west all the way to the coast, the Casablanca Valley is practically begging for fog and wind, and the South Pacific obliges. The Humboldt Current brings chilly air up from Antarctica, which is crucial for maintaining acidic brightness in the wines. With feathery morning fog and more cloud cover than anywhere else in northern Chile, the temperatures scarcely ever top 80°F—and average closer to 60. That gives the Sauvignon Blanc that grows here a long time to develop deep flavor complexity and impeccable balance.

Alto Vuelo’s Sauvignon Blanc is one you’ll barely ever see on US soil, because Santiago’s wine connoisseurs know the delightful balance of refreshment and complexity it offers. 

Lively and energetic, this is like the dinner guest who reveals a surprising expertise in linguistics over lemon-spritzed Mahi Mahi—all that dynamism, all that electricity, plus an intriguing depth. It opens with aromas of freshly cut grass, gooseberry, and crushed stones, then pulls back layers of lemongrass and tropical fruit on the palate, all over a lingering finish. 

Casablanca Valley’s granitic soils are up to 100 million years old and topped with a layer of red volcanic clay. Vines here push their roots through the porous soil to impressive depths, drawing out the kind of stark minerality that characterizes some of our favorite Sauvignon Blancs and permeates Alto Vuelo’s 2020 bottling. 

This is a relatively new viticultural subregion for Chile, established in the 1980s after years being used primarily for wheat and livestock. But as growers recognized its climatic similarity to Coastal California, a vineyard-planting blitz ensued. Soon after, Casablanca Valley was on the map as one of the country’s premier spots for cool-climate grapes like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.

This Sauvignon Blanc is a prime example, showing just how energetic, mineral-rich, and complex Chilean white wine can be.