Winemaker Notes
An elegant and voluptuous Pinot Noir with a bright ruby red coloring. Amazing finesse and complexity, with notes of sour cherries, strawberry, plum, mingle with background hints of leather and smoke. Fresh and juicy with perfect acidity,
ending with soft and long tannins.
Enjoy it with fresh salads with red fruit sauces, soft cheeses such as brie, duck, tuna or preparations with mushrooms.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 20 Barrels Pinot Noir was produced with grapes from San Antonio and only 15% from their oldest Pinot vines planted in 1989 in their Fundo El Triángulo Estate in Casablanca, which was the exclusive source for this wine in the past. It fermented with selected neutral yeasts in small open vats and matured 70% in French oak barrels and 30% in oak foudres for 14 months. It's seriously ripe at 14.5% alcohol but with very good freshness and acidity, reflecting a warmer year. It has generous spice and comes through as smoky with notes of toasted sesame seeds. This is a bit of a transition year for this wine that, in future vintages, will be 100% from San Antonio. It's medium-bodied, with vibrant flavors, still quite oaky and with abundant tannins that are going to require some more time in bottle and/or powerful food.
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.