Winemaker Notes
A deep ruby red, this icon Pinot Noir has great aromatic intensity expressing notes of red fruits and berries with a touch of spices and tobacco. In mouth it is smooth and elegant, with a refined concentration and acidity.
This wine pairs beautifully with red meats, duck, tuna and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Ocio is their top Pinot Noir, first produced in 2003 with grapes from their oldest vines in Casa Blanca and San Antonio on red clay, sand and granite soils. The uncrushed grapes underwent a one-week cold soak and then were foot trodden and inoculated with selected yeasts. After fermenting, it was put into new French barriques for malolactic for eight months and then spent a further six months, 60% of the volume in the same barrels and the rest in 2,000-liter foudre. This wine is produced with the advice of French winemaker Martin Prieur from Burgundy. It has 14% alcohol and good freshness and balance. It's akin to a modern Burgundy, with generous oak, some toasty notes and notes of orange peel and ripe cherries. It has kept vibrant acidity and comes through as medium to full-bodied with fine-grained tannins. It was bottled in June 2020. It has concentration, acidity and freshness to develop nicely in bottle. Best After 2022
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James Suckling
A pretty nose of cherries, strawberries, plums, smoke, cedar and violets. Medium-to full-bodied with fine, silky tannins and vibrant acidity. Focused and textured with chiseled character and a flavorful, spicy finish. Drink or hold.
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.