San Pedro 1865 Tayú Pinot Noir 2018 (Chile) - Wine Review

Tonight's wine review is a lovely Pinot Noir from the Malleco Valley, Chile's southernmost wine region. This exciting red wine is a new arrival to the LCBO as part of today's LCBO VINTAGES Release.

Tayú, which means "ours" in the Mapudungun language, is the proud result of an honest collaboration between the people of Buchahueico and San Pedro winery to celebrate Chile's indegenous roots. Buchahueico is located in the foothills of the Nahuelbuta Mountains in the Purén area of the Malleco Valley in the Araucanía region, approximately 540 km south of Santiago, in south-central Chile. The families of the Buchahueico community, known as Mapuche - meaning "people of the land" - have a deep connection to the earth that goes beyond what can be understood oenologically.

The Mapuche worked together with San Pedro's winemakers, to harness their intimate knowledge of the soils and craft a Pinot Noir that truly expresses its origin. The vineyard in Buchahueico is divided into two 2.5 hectare sites that have very old, red-coloured soils of granitic origin with a clay-loam texture and abundant quartz and granite. The soils are quite acidic and corrected with agricultural lime to make them neutral, thus lending itself to create wines with vibrant acidity. Due to the site's proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the microclimate of the Nahuelbuta Mountains, and it's latitude of 38° South, the temperature in this area is considered moderate, ranging from 4.2°C from to 27.8°C during the growing season, thus allowing the grapes to ripen slowly and later than other regions.

The Pinot Noir in this wine is made using Clones 115, 777, and 828, with each contributing its own unique characteristics. Clone 115 imparts spicy and herbal tones, while Clone 777 provides fresh red fruit and floral notes. Lastly, Clone 828 contributes black fruit and earthy aromas, as well as adding structure to the wine. After manually harvesting and sorting the grapes, 15% was fermented in concrete eggs with the remainder in stainless steel tanks. It was aged in a combination of concrete eggs (15%), untoasted French oak foudres (40%), and the rest in used French oak barrels. Let's see how this red wine is tasting tonight...

Tasting Note:

SAN PEDRO 1865 TAYÚ PINOT NOIR 2018 - Buchahueico, DO Malleco Valley, Chile (#16628) (XD) - $19.95
With an eye-catching label on the outside, this Pinot Noir is very impressive on the inside as well with its fresh, medium-high intensity, and complex aromas of wet earth and bright red fruits, and wild herb flecked with minerals, raspberry, spice, and touches of floral. It's light-to-mid-weighted on the palate with lovely sour cherry, raspberry, red fruit tones, spice, wet earth, and hints of tea leaf flavours. It gains weight in the mouth with its fresh, citrusy acidity, and lightly structured, fine tannins that have a touch of pleasant grip towards the back palate. Nicely balanced throughout with some interesting salty notes joining the wet earth characters on the long, succulent, minerally finish. Highly recommended buy! Score: 91+ pts

Other lovely wines from San Pedro can be found at the LCBO, as well as through their Agent - Dandurand.