Montes Aconcagua Costa Pinot Noir
Country: Chile Region: Aconcagua Costa
Varietal: Pinot Noir Vintage: 2022
Category: Red Wine Style: Dry
Producer: Montes
PRODUCER
Montes was established in 1988 by Aurelio Montes, Douglas Murray, Alfredo Vidaurre and Pedro Grand, with the aim of producing the best wines in Chile from the best regions. We have long admired Montes and what they have done for Chilean wine over the past three decades. Their wines are consistently good because they are meticulous throughout the entire production process. Montes owns 800 hectares of vineyards in Apalta and Marchigüe located in Colchagua Valley as well a single vineyard Zapallar, located in coastal Aconcagua Valley.
The Limited Selection wines are classic examples of matching the variety or blend to an area. The grape growers and winemakers are given carte blanche to take outstanding fruit and come up with some wholly individual wines that are perfect expressions of site.
VINEYARDS
The vineyards that produce the grapes for the Montes Limited Selection Pinot Noir are located in the Casablanca, Leyda, and Zapallar Valleys, in the Aconcagua Costa wine region. All the vineyards are close to the sea — Casablanca is 25 km from the coast, Leyda 9 km, and Zapallar is 7 km inland. This brings freshness and minerality to this cool-climate wine. The soils are granitic, with varying amounts of clay content and all vines are vertically
positioned.
VINIFICATION
The hand-harvested grapes were destemmed and the berries were sorted before transferred into open-top stainless steel tanks where they were cold soaked at 7°C for five days. This is to extract aroma and colour, especially important for the thin-skinned Pinot
Noir. The temperature was then raised to allow for fermentation which lasted approximately seven days at 23º– 25ºC, with two pump-overs and punch-downs per day. After being pressed, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks
with some of the wine aged in French oak barrels for six to seven months, while the rest remained in stainless steel tanks. The wine was lightly filtered prior to bottling.
TASTING NOTES
This wine is ruby red in colour. On the nose, there are intense aromas of fresh strawberries and tart cherries, with notes of rose petals and wild herbs. The well-integrated oak adds elegance and complexity – lightly toasted hazelnut and vanilla notes and very gentle, rounded tannins. A vibrant palate with plenty of red fruit and a balanced, lingering finish.
