Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I had been hearing a lot about the new slate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, so I was really eager to taste them. This new 2014 Aconcagua Costa "Las Pizarras" Pinot Noir is a selection of the best lots of Pinot Noir, grown on slate soils (pizarra is the Spanish word for slate) in the coastal part of the Aconcagua Valley, from their Manzanar estate vineyards. Winemaker Francisco Baettig used 20% full clusters for the fermentation in open-top fermenters and then aged the wine in French barriques, half of which were new, for 14 months. For such a young wine, there are very complex aromas that already point at notes of forest floor, mushrooms, truffles and game, not only wild berries and spices; it is subtle, fine and layered in a way that made me think of a wine from René Engel. There are some notes of rusty iron, blood and earth, and an absolute absence of balsamic aromas or notes of wood. The palate is medium-bodied with fine acidity and tannins, but with plenty of grip. Most would place this in the Côte de Nuits. Do not confuse it with the already existing "regular" Pinot Noir Aconcagua Costa. 4,000 bottles were filled in July 2015.Rating: 92+
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James Suckling
This has evolved, with aromas of rich cranberries, dried earth and hints of caramel, wet leaves and old books. Complex, with a medium body and some chewy, drying tannins. It’s a little over the hill.
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.