Casablanca Valley
Chile's cool, coastal, avant-garde white-wine district — planted with sauvignon blanc and chardonnay in the 1990s land rush, and the home of its zesty, bold sauvignons.
About the region
Casablanca Valley is one of the more coastal, cool and avant-garde districts of the Aconcagua DO, alongside San Antonio Valley (and within San Antonio, the very upcoming zone of Leyda Valley). In the 1990s these regions experienced the wine equivalent of a mini gold rush, as investors swooped in, bought land and began planting sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Chilean sauvignon blanc is decidedly the more exciting of the country's two main white grapes — typically zesty and bold — while most Chilean chardonnay, extensively planted in the 1990s in response to seemingly bottomless demand for inexpensive chardonnay in the United States and Great Britain, remains bargain-priced and uncomplicated, with a few exceptions such as Lapostolle and Montes.
