Garcés Silva Amayna Chardonnay 2013 Leyda Valley, San Antonio, Chile 75cl

Garcés Silva farms in the Leyda Valley, close to the Pacific and around 100 kilometres west of Santiago. The family planted its first vines in 1999 and built its winery in 2002, and the Amayna label has since become its flagship range, made in a gravity-fed cellar within sight of the ocean.

This is pure Chardonnay grown just a few miles from the sea, where the cold Humboldt Current keeps the vineyard cool even in high summer. That maritime setting is central to the wine, lending the fruit a taut, mineral quality, while a spell in French oak barrels adds texture and a gentle toasty depth.

The 2013 vintage now carries real bottle age for a Chardonnay, which tends to broaden the fruit and bring out savoury, developed notes. It rewards drinking now rather than further keeping, and is best served cool but not ice cold so its complexity and texture have room to show.

The nose is layered, with pineapple and apricot lifted by toasted, nutty oak. The palate is medium-bodied with good acidity and a mineral, saline finish that keeps the richness in check. There is more grip and structure here than in an everyday Chardonnay, a wine to sip rather than gulp.

If you enjoy white Burgundy or other cool-climate, barrel-fermented Chardonnay, this coastal Chilean example belongs in the same conversation at a friendlier price. It is a fine match for roast chicken, creamy fish dishes or a wedge of aged hard cheese. This is Leyda Chardonnay showing what its cool coastline can do.