Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Pinot Noir from Casablanca has delicate energy, with aromas of herbs, dark fruit, forest floor and boldo over a backdrop of damp earth. It shows a slightly feral edge that lends a magical nuance, alongside a subtle hint of rose. Wild yet focused, the 2018 achieves elegance through grip and a long, resonant finish. A tremendous wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
According to Julio Donoso, the 2018 Montsecano, the first vintage vinified by Derain, "continues the Montsecano style, following the path marked by Ostertag, but we vinified a little earlier and macerations were shorter." 2018 was a very good and cool vintage, and that certainly helped to have a fresher wine, produced from their five hectares of dry-farmed vines that were planted between 2006 and 2010 in the village of Las Dichas in Casablanca. The wine ferments and matures in concrete eggs until bottling. It has a moderate 12% alcohol, reflecting the character of the year and the earlier picking, with red acid berry aromas, a floral touch and more depth and complexity than the Refugio from this same year. It's subtle, has detail and elegance and is clean and focused, with very fine tannins and a very balanced palate with integrated acidity. It's harmonious and elegant.
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.