These wines are great value, and scored well in the coastal Chilean Pinot Noir Decanter panel tasting...
Best Chilean Pinot Noir under £15
As Patricio Tapia pointed out: ‘Based on this tasting, a number of producers are successfully moving out of the experimental into a more mature phase.’
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See the full panel tasting and wines in the October issue of Decanter, on sale now. Subscribe to Decanter here.
Dirceu Vianna Jr MW said this tasting shows how much more progress has been made. ‘Moreover, we saw exciting diversity – in terms of styles and price points – which is new and very welcome.’
DWWA Regional Chair for Chile, Peter Richards MW endorsed this view: ‘There’s a solid platform now and, encouragingly, we are starting to see more confidence and risk-taking.
‘In the past, we’ve had good wines – even some excellent wines. But they haven’t been the kind of wines that really excite Pinot lovers. Today’s wines are.’
More from the tasting:
Casablanca consistently performed extremely well. As Richards commented, ‘Casablanca has been on an upward trajectory of late, and is in a very good place right now.’
Next came Leyda, Limarí and San Antonio, which all did well, albeit with more variability. One disappointment was that there wasn’t more representation from the south of Chile.
‘I would have liked to have seen more examples from Bío Bío and Itata – and sadly there was only one entrant from Elqui in the north.’
Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release Pinot Noirs (maximum two per producer) from Bío Bío, Malleco, Aconcagua Costa, San Antonio, Casablanca, Leyda, Limarí, Paredones, chonoElqui and Atacama.
