Chilean Pinot Noir from Casablanca Valley

Earlier this week I was invited to a #winechat to taste and discuss Casablanca Valley pinot noir.  #winechat is a Twitter event every Wednesday evening, when folks interested in wine get together online to discuss a certain type of wine.  There’s a specific theme each week.

For the Casablanca Valley pinot noir #winechat, three media samples were sent to me and a few other folks.  We basically taste the wines and share our thoughts.  It’s a fun way to explore wine and compare your impressions about the wine with other connoisseurs.

Maybe five, certainly ten years ago, if someone had offered me a Chilean pinot noir I would have had my doubts about it.  But today there are a number of producers making very good pinot noir in Chile.  The challenge with pinot noir is that it’s finicky in the vineyard.  It doesn’t like hot, dry or windy conditions.  Cool climate regions tend to treat it best, all though not too cool as it’s also sensitive to frost.  Casablanca Valley turns out to have pretty good conditions for pinot noir.

Now that Chile has identified regions where pinot noir flourishes, production is steadily increasing.

Here are my notes on the wines we tasted this week.

Veramonte Ritual Pinot Noir

The aromatics on this wine have a quality that I describe as “sharp” or “high-pitched” by which I mean that the aromatic profile has a very tight focus on particular scents (versus being broad across varied scents) and the sensation of those scents is notices high within the nasal cavity, giving it a “high-pitched” quality.  It’s hard to explain in words.  The more familiar descriptors I can give for the scents are strawberry, cherry, cola, sage and nutmeg.  The palate brings a very smooth mouthfeel.  It offers flavors such as cherry, red raspberry, plum and a touch of coffee.  The acidity is perfect.  The finish, long.  A very good wine.

Wine: Veramonte Ritual
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2011
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 87
Price: $18.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

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Montes Alpha Pinot Noir

This wine has a lot going on in the nose, with plenty of floral aromas, eucalyptus, cherry, strawberry and leather all coming together beautifully.  This is one of those wines you could spend twenty minutes just exploring the aromatics.  In the mouth, I’m first struck by a strawberry flavor, but it quickly expands to reveal wild cherry, plum, red raspberry and tea flavors.  The acidity is very good, as is the mouthfeel.  The finish is relatively long with cherry, tea and mineral flavors.

Wine: Montes Alpha
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $21.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

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Viña Casablanca, Nimbus Single Vineyard Pinot Noir

The nose is a little tight on this one, but eventually opens up to reveal blackberry, tree bark, cranberry and plum aromas.  Give this one good time to open up, it’s worth it.  The palate is moderately dense, offering blackberry, cranberry, plum and cherry flavors up front, with some black tea and black pepper flavors showing up mid-palate and into the finish.  This wine is a bit more on the earthy side, but has plenty of fruit too.  It’s a very nice wine.

Wine: Viña Casablanca, Nimbus Single Vineyard
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $20.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

Find Viña Casablanca, Nimbus Single Vineyard Pinot Noir with Snooth