Producer: Viña Leyda (belongs to Viña San Pedro)
Wine: Las Brisas Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2011
Origin: Chile, San Antonio & Leyda, Leyda Valley, Las Brisas
Price range: 10-15€ (Finland, Alko)
Available at Alko: Yes (02/13), 475537
Today I change a bit the presentation to make it more clear. Tribute to many a wine blog I know… I must acknowledge that this is more practical and easier to read.
Las Brisas Pinot Noir by Viña Leyda is a classic from Alko. The earliest vintage I tasted is 2008 (not the best vintage ever). It has always delivered and it consistently got better. This bottle is however a little bit problematic as there is a strong reduction in the nose at the opening.
Reduction (as a defect) is not an accurate word but it describes, by opposition to oxidation, the state of a lack of oxygen. Reduction happens in young wines, with specific grapes or specific winemaking… It is usually not « lethal » to the wine, the wine just needs breathing through decanting or just ageing. This reduction issue is more and more common with the growing number of red wines bottled under screwcap. It is all the stronger with reductive grapes (Pinot Noir and Syrah). If reduction is due to the screwcap, it can sometimes be almost unfixable: I had one bottle which required three (!) days of decanting before getting rid of the smell. In the present case, the bottle needed a lot of breathing (maybe a night) but it was drinkable after a couple of hours of decanting.
Besides this very strong smell of wet socks, one could find a very nice red fruit and slight spices (pepper). The wine is well balanced and structured enough. The mouth was much better a nice balance of cherry, aromatic herbs and discrete earthiness. Very balanced in terms of alcohol, acidity and sweetness. In the mouth, it is one of the best Las Brisas I have tasted. This is an inbetween classic and modern style Pinot Noir. It is not over ripe and over extracted as sometimes Pinot Noir can be in Chile (like Ocio 2009, by Cono Sur, which tasted like a Syrah a few month ago) but it is far more fruity than a Burgundy version of the grape. I can only advise this wine and recommend cellaring it for a year or two to get the best out of it. It already improved greatly since the original release.
Wineops’ rating: 76/100 ; 5 + (the rating would probably have been higher without the reduction)