These Leyda vineyards in San Antonio depend on water from the Maipo river below, and water is currently the big issue in Chile as the amount of available meltwater from the Andes declines.
But for the moment the country is making some stunningly good whites – especially Chardonnays, some of them at great prices. Pandolfi Price and Aristos from Louis-Michel Liger-Belair of Vosne-Romanée are quite outstanding, even if the latter is no bargain. François Massoc, Pedro Parra’s partner in Clos des Fous, is involved in both. Is he the Denis Dubourdieu of South America? Or are his wines even...