2024 Laberinto - Sauvignon Blanc Cenizas (750ml)
The Sauvignon Blanc that quietly redefined what Chile is capable of — and one of the most compellingly original white wines in the entire Southern Hemisphere. The Cenizas has earned 96 Points from Tim Atkin MW in consecutive vintages, with the 2023 drawing praise from Descorchados at 95 Points and Wine Advocate at 95 Points — and the 2024 continues that extraordinary tradition of quality and place.
"Place, place, place," says Rafael Tirado of this stunning Sauvignon Blanc — consistently among Chile's finest, showing remarkable tension and acidity with effortless energy and precision, with flavors of elderflower and lemongrass, texture from time on lees, and a salty, mouth-watering finish. This is a classic in the Laberinto catalog, made since 1999 from a selection of vineyards planted on soils with abundant volcanic ash on a south-facing slope — a cool orientation that offers tremendous fruit expression with fruity, herbal, and citrus notes and tense acidity in command.
The Laberinto vineyards sit near the town of Colbún in the Maule region at 1,800 feet elevation, surrounded by alpine forests and Lake Colbún — a single estate vineyard from vines planted by Rafael Tirado himself in 1993, organically farmed on volcanic soil, hand harvested, fermented in stainless steel, aged six months on lees, unfiltered and unoaked. The result is a Sauvignon Blanc of extraordinary originality — not pungent or pyrazine-driven in the New Zealand style, not flinty and limestone-driven in the Sancerre style, but something wholly its own: volcanic, mineral, and alive, recalling the white wines of Santorini or Etna more than anywhere else on earth. Pale gold with electric acidity, pure citrus, guava, lemongrass, and a stony, saline mineral finish of breathtaking length. An essential and unmissable bottle