Vina Echeverria 'El Compadre' Pinot Noir, Valle de Malleco

A silky, smooth and cool climate Pinot Noir made with low intervention to fully express notes of spiced cherry, blueberry, hibiscus and violet.

Producer Note

Viña Echeverría is a family-run estate winery, owned and managed by the Echeverría family. Established in 1930, but with an agricultural heritage going back to the 1700s, Viña Echeverría is as much today, as always, driven by a shared passion for winemaking and an uncompromising search for excellence. Viña Echeverría combines nearly a century of viticulture and winemaking experience with a modern state-of-the-art winery, to produce an extensive collection of quality wines. The 'No es Pituko' range represents a radical departure from the rest of the more traditional Echeverría wines, both in look and make-up, being vinified naturally, without any additions at any stage. Viña Echeverría has recently been awarded its Sustainable Winery status by Wines of Chile, as well as its ISO9000 certification.

Vintage

The 2019 season was characterised by a lack of rain during the spring, followed by an episode of frost. High thermal oscillation during ripening, combined with no significant rainfall during harvest, resulted in a slow, gradual maturation of the berries. The fruit at harvest was healthy and beautifully balanced, rich in flavour with slightly lower alcohol levels.

Vineyard

The vineyard is located in the Valle de Malleco, surrounded by volcanoes around 340 miles to the south of Santiago. This cool climate region has high rainfall of 1,300 millimetres a year and a short growing season. However, the region enjoys high sunlight hours which encourages ripening of the grapes. The diurnal temperature differences are marked, the warm days give way to considerably cooler nights, which slows the ripening of the grapes producing aromatic grapes with great concentration of flavours and excellent balance between sugar and acidity. The soils are volcanic in origin and are red clay, which are deep and rich in organic compounds, with good drainage, an essential attribute to cope with the high rainfall in this region. The lower levels of ground water encourage the vines to develop deep root systems, produce less foliage and produce low yields of fruit, which is concentrated with excellent structure. Manual harvesting at optimum maturity.

Winemaking

Following a low-intervention philosophy, the grapes underwent cool skin maceration at 10°C for four to five days prior to fermentation. Fermentation took place with wild yeasts, which allows for the best expression of the terroir, in stainless steel tanks and lasted 12 to 15 days at 23 - 27°C. Post fermentation maceration lasted for five days and the 100% of the wine underwent malolactic conversion, softening the palate. 75% was aged in French oak barrels for six months.

Tasting Note

A silky, smooth Pinot Noir made with low intervention to fully express notes of spiced cherry, blueberry, hibiscus and violets. Beautifully balanced with an elegant finish.

Grape

Pinot Noir 100%