Winemaker Notes
The nose is reminiscent of fresh wild fruit, tart plum, with notes of damp forest, and flowers. Its time spent in lightly toasted French oak lends a spicy, sweet edge, like pastry, with notes of vanilla, nutmeg, and jam. On the palate, it is beautifully balanced, with a light to medium body and vibrant acidity. An elegant and complex wine that shows that when it comes to Chilean Pinot Noir, there’s a lot to say!
Highly recommended with pesto pasta; mild, creamy soups (mushroom, chicken), veal chops, salmon, Camembert cheese, mushroom risotto, rocket and herb salad, bruschetta.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really pretty. Creamy texture and dried-strawberry character with some smoke and toast. Full body. Lovely fruit and slight bitterness at the end. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Briary plum and red berry aromas come with side notes of tea, wood spice, savory herbs and iron. On the palate, this is a touch thick and resiny, but healthy acidity cuts through the wine’s natural ripeness. Spiced plum flavors are a touch oaky, while this is dry and firmly tannic on a finish where complex notes of salt, tomato and black tea surface.
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Wine Spectator
Delicate, with dried cherry and berry flavors matched to savory nuances in this medium-bodied style. Cinnamon and spice notes show on the finish. Drink now through 2023. 7,000 cases made, 500 cases imported.
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.