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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! 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 [...] 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 [...] 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) [...] I reckon the average quality of Sauvignon Blanc is improving all the time. Here are three serious examples from across the globe, all of which are a bit different, but thoroughly enjoyable. Dourthe Grande Cuvee Sauvignon Blanc 2009 Bordeaux 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 [...] 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 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 |
 This is the blog of wine journalist Jamie Goode, online since 2001. Feel free to nose around; your comments are welcomed.
 
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