Errazuriz, Las Pizarras Pinot Noir

Errazuriz, Las Pizarras Pinot NoirI also tasted two consecutive vintages of the slate Pinot Noir, and the oldest of the two is the 2016 Aconcagua Costa "Las Pizarras" Pinot Noir, which fermented with 18% full clusters in open vats after a cold soak and had a 20 day maceration. It matured for some 14 months in French barriques, 33% of them new. It has that iodine like or fresh blood note I associate with schist and iron soils. This seems fresher and more precise than the previous 2015,

On the plus side there is both good freshness and verve to the delicious and solidly concentrated medium weight flavors that offer fine persistence on the clean and dry if only moderately complex finish

to the almost painfully intense flavors that exhibit focused power on the dusty

Tasted at the Ausone vertical in London

black berry and a plethora of spice nuances

with a lively spine of acidity and delicately phenolic back-end grip

and I prefer the Brand in 2005

vanillin and hints of toffee apple

round and utterly delicious middleweight flavors possess good if not excellent intensity before terminating in a youthfully austere focused and moderately firm finale that could also use better depth

It is a pleasurable Saint-Émilion rather than a great Ausone

(from En Orveaux)

This is the first vintage of Yalumba s new Cabernet/Shiraz-based flagship wine

finishing long with an exciting herbal lift