Montes Alpha Pinot Noir 2019
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Suckling
James
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The nose is reminiscent of fresh wild fruit, tart plum, with notes of damp forest, and flowers. Its time spent in lightly toasted French oak lends a spicy, sweet edge, like pastry, with notes of vanilla, nutmeg, and jam. On the palate, it is beautifully balanced, with a light to medium body and vibrant acidity. An elegant and complex wine that shows that when it comes to Chilean Pinot Noir, there’s a lot to say.
Highly recommended with pesto pasta; mild, creamy soups (mushroom, chicken), veal chops, salmon, Camembert cheese, mushroom risotto, rocket and herb salad, bruschetta.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of cherries, redcurrants, smoke, earth and baking spices. It’s medium-to full-bodied with fine tannins. Round and balanced in the mouth. Velvety texture with crisp acidity, leading to a flavorful, savory finish. Drink or hold.
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With the release of the first Montes Alpha wine back in 1988, Montes became one of the first premium wineries of Chile. Their premise, a clear belief that Chile had an untapped potential as a producer of quality wines, made them a benchmark for other wineries to follow. Its original four partners' total involvement and the continuous help of the angels that decorate their labels was key to their success. Two decades later, Montes is the fifth most important winery of Chile where Aurelio Montes continues leading the winemaking area with the same passion as the first day. Hard work and total focus on quality has led Montes to be one of the most successful and respected quality-driven wineries in Chile as they continue pioneering and breaking new grounds in wine.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
The Aconcagua River runs east from the charming costal town of Valparaiso and bisects the land creating the valley after which it was named. While alluvial soils predominate the Aconcagua Valey along its river throughout, its east-west flow creates drastically different conditions on each of its ends. Its western, seaside vineyards, with clay and stony soils upon gently rolling hills, produce cool-climate varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Its inner region is one of Chile’s hottest and produces some of its best red wines. Panquehue in the inner Aconcagua is the site of Chile’s first Syrah vines, planted in 1993.