Winemaker Notes
Red fruit with presence of herbs such as thyme, spices, and clove. Medium-high acidity, low alcohol, slight minerality alongside integrated oak and grainy tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of wild raspberries, mushrooms, white truffles, herbs and smoked meat. It’s medium-to full-bodied with tight-grained, seamless tannins. So silky and mouthwateringly savory, with forest-floor notes turning to spices and herbs. Salty undertones, too. Some bottle age will soften this.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Even better than the amazing 2018 was the 2019 La Savante Pinot Noir, one of the most elegant and perfumed Pinot Noirs from Argentina. It comes from 1.45 hectares planted in 1994 with Pinot Noir clones 115 and 777 in the monastery zone of Gualtallary at 1,450 meters in altitude. It has a chalky texture, very stony and somewhat austere, insinuating, and a long and nuanced finish.
Rating: 95+ -
Wine Spectator
Richly spiced, showing clove and allspice amid a well-textured core of raspberry and cherry, adding details of orange peel and thyme around minerally tannins.
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.”
With a winning combination of cool weather, high elevation and well-draining alluvial soils, it is no surprise that Mendoza’s Uco Valley is one of the most exciting up-and-coming wine regions in Argentina. Healthy, easy-to-manage vines produce low yields of high-quality fruit, which in turn create flavorful, full-bodied wines with generous acidity.
This is the source of some of the best Malbec in Mendoza, which can range from value-priced to ultra-premium. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay also perform well here.