El Enemigo Chardonnay

The number that first attracts attention is 1,470.

That is the altitude, in metres, of the Gualtallary vineyard from which El Enemigo Chardonnay 2023 comes. The producer describes deep, rocky, calcareous soils at this high site in Tupungato.

But perhaps the more curious detail happens after the grapes leave the vineyard.

The Chardonnay ferments with wild yeast in 500-litre French oak barrels, 35 per cent of them new, at a maximum temperature of 18°C. Fermentation lasts forty days.

Then comes the detail that changes the story: twelve months in 500-litre French oak with veil.

Suddenly, altitude is only half the picture.

One part of the wine belongs to exposure: a vineyard high in Gualtallary, more than a kilometre above sea level.

The other takes place inside a barrel, beneath a layer at the surface of the wine.

The 2023 growing season adds another dimension. El Enemigo reports spring frosts in October and November 2022 that reduced yields, followed by dry conditions and slightly warmer temperatures. The resulting low yields brought harvest forward by two to four weeks.

Those facts make it tempting to explain this Chardonnay entirely through altitude and climate.

But the cellar leaves us with another image.

The vineyard reaches upwards.

The wine spends a year under a veil.