2014 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir

(made with 20 percent whole clusters and aged in 50 percent new French oak barrels) Vivid red. Heady red berry liqueur, cola and Asian spice aromas, along with suggestions of candied rose and incense. Sweet and penetrating in the mouth, offering intense, spice- and mineral-accented raspberry, cherry and spicecake flavors and a refreshingly bitter hint of blood orange. Silky tannins build slowly and fold effortlessly into the wine's energetic fruit on a strikingly long, sweet finish that shows excellent clarity. Not many Chilean Pinots of my experience can match up to this beauty.

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.

The new label, created for high-end 'terroir' wines. To be released March 2016. pH 3.2. Pale crimson. Bright sweet fruit. Very slight beetroot flavours. Still youthful with a very dry end and lots of chew. (JR)