Alice L’Estrange, part-time Melbourne based, part-time Chilean based, [full-time friend of Mr West] winemaker and importer spearheads the collective that is “Las Fermentadas”. A side-project of hers focused on women-grown, women-cultivated wines with an eye toward grape-growing & winemaking education.

La Sangrada means the Saignée translated from the French ‘to bleed’.  Hand-harvested from heirloom, dry-farmed Pais vines, grapes are destemmed and the juice is bled off for four days, to create a much more concentrated product. The wine sits on gross lees, under flor in steel tanks for 11 months. No additions at any point. After a light press, the wine is racked once and fermented with wild yeasts. Unfined, unfiltered, no SO2.

The idea was a very fresh, light, crunchy, herbaceous and savoury expression of País, bottled with some fine lees this saignée is free and wild. A great accompaniment to salty foods.