Horses in the vineyard

Just been for a pleasant horse ride in the vineyard here in Bio Bio. Coincidentally, I am just reading Cormac McCarthy’s All the pretty horses, so I’m quite into horses at the moment. Mine was a stout little beast who responded well to a quick clip of the heels on the midriff for about 20 [...]

Chile day 1: Bio Bio

First proper day in Chile. We’ve spent it in Bio Bio, a cool-climate region down south. This morning was spent in the vineyards here, owned by Veranda/Corpora. They’ve been busy planting a lot of Pinot Noir, in particular, but also have Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, plus a bit of Malbec.

We saw some remarkable young vineyards, [...]

In Chile!

In Chile! I’m spending this week exploring Chile, and in particular some of the newer cool-climate wine regions. The journey here has been a long one for this merry band of five: David Williams, Chris Losh, Peter Richards, Emma Wellings (leading the trip) and myself.

We set off from Heathrow for an 11 hour flight to [...]

Dinner at 28-50 with Francisco Baettig

Had a very interesting dinner last night. It was at new wine-focused London restaurant  28-50 (website here), and was hosted by Francisco Baettig, chief winemaker at Errazuriz in Chile (pictured above).

Alongside the excellent food (which was really, really good) we tasted a number of pairs of wines. Francisco had chosen to pair an Errazuriz wine [...]

Chile’s Cloudy Bay revisited

When I tried this wine back in November, I dubbed it Chile’s Cloudy Bay. It’s a startlingly fresh, pure expression of Sauvignon Blanc from a new cool-climate region of Chile, and the best thing about it is that it doesn’t rely on methoxypyrazine (the green pepper/grassy character that comes from chemicals present in unripe grapes) [...]

An impressive Chilean Pinot Noir

After posting on a delicious flight of Chilean Pinot Noirs at the International Wine Challenge this week, I was really pleased to find this gem. It’s a beautifully supple, quite elegant expression of Pinot Noir from Chile’s Bio Bio region. It’s not perfect: there’s some savoury/oaky character obscuring the fruit a bit, but it’s delicious [...]

Two Chilean Pinots from Cono Sur

These are both good wines, offering some Pinot Noir character at a good price, but they’re a bit lacking in elegance. I’d recommend them, but only on the basis of value for money, and because it is so, so hard to get good cheap Pinot Noir.

Cono Sur Pinot Noir 2009 Central Valley, Chile
Vibrant, juicy and [...]

Really interesting cool-climate Chilean Syrah

I’ve just written up the wines from Chilean producer Viña Leyda on the main wineanorak site. They’re all brilliant, but I thought I’d draw readers’ attention to one of the wines, which is a deliciously fresh, peppery cool-climate Syrah.

Viña Leyda Canelo Single Vineyard Syrah 2007 Leyda Valley, Chile
Fresh, floral cool climate Syrah nose [...]