WINE OF THE WEEK: Morandé Terrarum Single Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2024, Valle de Casablanca, Chile

£11/£12.50, Majestic

The nose-tinglingly attractive aromatics of this single-estate Sauvignon Blanc make it a perfect dry white for the season – for the lighter, brighter days and for lighter, brighter food.

The smell conjures up gooseberries, lemongrass and new-grown nettles and it’s punchy and pithy with an energising mineral finish and subtle volume and texture from ageing on the lees.

It comes from Morandé’s Belén estate in the cold Lo Ovalle part of Casablanca Valley, a valley that was Chile’s first cool-climate coastal wine region when it was planted by the pioneering Pablo Morandé in the early 1980s.

It changed the face of Chilean white wine, but it wasn’t easy for Pablo Morandé. Almost everyone said the valley was far too close to the sea, and then felt smugly vindicated when the vineyard was wiped out by frost in the first year.

Undaunted, Morandé replanted and three years later he had a white wine, a Chardonnay, the likes of which Chile had never seen. The rest, as they say, is history.

The 2024 Morandé Terrarum Single Estate Sauvignon Blanc sings as an aperitif, but keep some back for the table: for shellfish including crab cakes, for ceviche, sushi and sashimi, smoked salmon salads (with ginger and soy), tomato salads including with burrata, Thai and Vietnamese salads, vegetable spring rolls or Thai green curry. 12.5%. Empty bottle weight: 410g.

Morandé Terrarum Single Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2024, Valle de Casablanca, Chile

£11 in any 6-bottle mix, £12.50 singly, Majestic

#wine #Chile #SauvignonBlanc #wineandfood #winepairing #white