Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Another Pinot from the 2013 vintage, but this one sourced 100% from Casablanca, is the 2013 Pinot Noir 20 Barrels Limited Edition. This is a wine that was born when in the 1996 vintage they selected their best 20 barrels of the grape to produce a high quality Pinot Noir, from their first vineyards planted in Casablanca in 1988. Cropped from a cold vintage, the grapes are destemmed but not crushed and fermented; they start with carbonic maceration in small vats at low temperature, where they keep the grapes covered with dry ice and for around one week. Afterwards, they are foot-trodden and then transferred to barrel by gravity without any post fermentative maceration. The idea of the carbonic maceration is to achieve 40% of what they want, so after that they can do a gentle rest of the vinification. The wine then matured in French oak barriques for one year. The nose is quite Burgundian with traces of smoke, spices and something earthy à la Gevrey, over the core of black cherries. The palate is medium-bodied, nicely structured with good acidity and nerve, clean and not built around concentration, but around its acidity and minerality. Great Pinot, superb value for money.
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.”
A region that has become synonymous with some of the best whites of Chile, the Casablanca Valley is full of dozens of bodegas who either grow fruit here or come from outside to source from local growers for their own white wine programs. The valley runs from east to west, which means that its westernmost vineyards receive the most cooling influence from the reliable afternoon sea breezes. The soils also tend to be heavier in clay in the west, whereas the eastern end of the valley is warmer and its soils are predominantly granitic. Sauvignon blanc thrives here, Chardonnay does well and Pinot noir is not uncommon.