jamie goode's wine blog: Anakena rock: a great value Pinot Noir

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Anakena rock: a great value Pinot Noir


Very impressed with Chilean winery Anakena of late. First of all they made a fantastic Viognier, vying with Australia's Yalumba for the best sub-£10 Viognier on the planet. Now this: a really attractive sub-£10 Pinot, that doesn't have that 'Chilean' taste to it. It's streets ahead of Cono Sur, the other well regarded inexpensive Chilean Pinot.

Anakena Pinot Noir 2008 Rapel Valley, Chile
Lovely sweet, aromatic, subtly leafy fresh cherry fruit nose with a hint of spice. The palate is supple and nicely textured with some sweet cherry and berry fruit and real elegance. Light and expressive with a seamless quality: not the most complex wine but a really delicious Pinot. 89/100 (£8.49 Fareham Wine Cellar)

Labels: ,

6 Comments:

At 1:57 PM, Blogger Nick Oakley said...

Jamie,

What is that 'typical Chilean taste'?
Genuine question.

 
At 4:11 PM, Anonymous Steve said...

Whatever happened to that Viognier now that First Quench has gone under?

 
At 5:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm also interested in the 'typical Chilean taste' comment. South African wines get a lot bad press for their green-overripe characteristics, but the 'typical Chilean taste' is very seldom written about and I find the two quite similar actually. Something almost coppery about the characteristics!? The South African version being generally leaner which is probably why the Chilean is less offensive. In fact, I thought a Diemersfontein (coffee) Pinotage was Chilean when I tasted it!

Chris

 
At 11:26 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Nick, basically Chilean reds tend to taste Chilean - it's a green herbal sort of character that's at odds with the sweet fruit profile. I'm sensitive to it, so I can spot most Chilean reds blind quite easily. This impressed because it lacked this character.

South African reds have a similar South African flavour, that's a little different to the Chilean flavour. Again, the best SA reds lack this.

I think a lot of the fights I get into saying these sorts of things is because some people just don't have the biological sensitivity to the flavour compounds involved.

I'm excited that over the next few years we'll start seeing SA and Chile start to make truly world class red wines, something that they haven't really done all that often yet. SA is slightly ahead of Chile.

I should emphasize that I'm talking about fine wines, and not commercial wines - SA and Chile are both on fire commercially. There's a difference here.

Steve
I'd love to know. It's a truly great wine.

 
At 12:11 AM, Blogger Michael said...

The 2008 Anakena Sauvignon Blanc is a real winner as well.

 
At 6:09 PM, Blogger Mark Underwood said...

I notice the Co-op are doing a very cheap Anakena Shiraz 2006. Wondered whether that was worth a punt?

 

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home