The history of Undurraga goes all the way back to 1885 when Don Francisco Undurraga brought vines over from France and Germany to establish the estate.  But in more recent history, the Undurraga family left the business in 2006 after a dispute with their business partners.  The Picciotto family took over the estate and has since focused on improving the quality of the wines.

Undurraga is one of the largest producers in Chile.  They now have several brands of wine, one of which is T.H., which stands for Terroir Hunter.  These are wines meant to express a particular location, or “terroir,” and there are actually three different types of sauvignon blanc offered under the T.H. brand.  This one is from the Leyda sector of San Antonio, but they also have one from Casablanca and one from Lo Abarca.  I suppose it would be interesting to sample and compare all three, but alas I only have the one from Leyda to taste.

There’s pretty good intensity on the nose of this sauvignon blanc.  It has  “cooling” aromas to it, like green pepper, green bean and wet stones.  But there are also some wafts of citrus underneath all that.  The citrus really pops on the palate, which has plenty of lemon, grapefruit and a touch of mango.  It finishes with a cool lemon/lime flavor that has good length.

Wine: T.H. Leyda
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 87
Price: $16.00

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.