Fosil Chardonnay, Familia Zuccardi 2021

The 2021 Chardonnay Fósil from San Pablo, Uco Valley was 30% aged in 500-liter barrels, the rest in concrete. Yellow in the glass. The nose offers notes of linden blossom, apple, country herbs and a hint of huacatay, a mountain herb. Dry in the mouth with a chalky feel and expansive freshness that brings nuance and depth; the flow is ethereal and saline while the finish lingers at leisure. The conditions that year really helped to dial up the quality, surpassing previous vintages. A complex, refined expression, tight like the best bands and continuing the austere spirit with which Fósil made its name.

2021 seems like a very good vintage at Zuccardi, and they consider it a superb year for whites. The 2021 Fósil has lower alcohol (12.8%) and a sharper profile and is austere, young and subtle with a seamless palate with great freshness, balance and elegance. In this cooler year, they used more oak, because they feel that the wine needs more oxygen in cooler years and less in warmer ones. So, this 2019 fermented and matured equal parts in concrete and used 500-liter oak barrels for around eight months. But the wine shows no oak, and certainly no more than the 2020 I tasted next to it, but the two vintages show different profiles. This should develop nicely in bottle. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2021.

Tasted over two days. Very pale lemon in colour with a crystalline focus on the nose. Notes of confit lemon meld with lime curd and a stoney freshness. The palate is vibrant with incisive, mouthwatering acids setting the backbone of this wine. Around it, that same pure citrus fruit is intense but compact, fleshed out by subtle hints of cream. Still driven and linear on the second day, it gains in length and intensity. A very impressive, Chablis-like take on Argentinian Chardonnay.