Winemaker Notes
The Portillo Pinot Noir is a light plum purple with a refined nose of fresh, ripe cherries, strawberries and blackberries. Red cherry and strawberry shine through on this youthful palate with soft tannins and a round finish of nutmeg and cloves.
Enjoy with grilled meats, roasted turkey, stuffed chicken, seared tuna steaks and grilled salmon.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Portillo from the Uco Valley is cherry red in color. Notes of strawberry and gentle hints of mushroom and earth come through extremely clear on the nose, especially considering the price of this wine. Lean with a nimble, flavorful flow, the young tannins add character, keeping things fairly taut. An overachiever in this segment.
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.