I am a wine writer from the other side of the tracks! A retired and impoverished old codger. I even had lunch in a suburban restaurant 36 kilometres from Toronto! There wasn’t an orthodontist in sight! Actually, the food was excellent as was the conversation with a veteran wine writer friend! There are no wineries delivering cases of hugely expensive Pinot Noir to my door. Pinot Noir from France? $40 for entry level. $23.99 to pour down the sink. For $40 a British Columbian Pinot Noir from the Okanagan, for example from Meyer Family Vineyards, outshines Burgundy. Oh but Canadian! Enough to give a Los Angles cardiologist and a Manhattan plastic surgeon a cardiac “event”! Can the “low life” Chileans deliver a blow to hot shot Pinot Noirs know it all’s seeking some obscure Burgundian Pinot Noir to cherish in their Sag Island summer retreat?
Californian big tech magnates will identify that the grapes for this Pinot Noir are grown 4 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean and yes with that “magical fog”! The tech types will delight that the wine comes from “polygons” which are small subdivisions within lots! This Pinot Noir is from Lot 21 and from Clone 777, thank goodness not 666! And how about this! The grapes in Lot 21 were harvested on 5 different dates! How exciting! And yet more thrilling 30% of the grapes were pressed in whole clusters!
The answer is yes in my lumpen proletarian experience! So for a whopping $29.95 for a Chilean Pinot Noir can we all embarrass ourselves or laugh at the monied class where obscurity and Randy Kurniawan can thrive?
Let’s see with a Leyda Lot 21 Pinot Noir from Chile’s Valle de Leyda?
Aroma: Yet more Chilean raspberry influence in many Chilean red wines but big fat juicy strawberries almost too ripe. Just the right amount of oak. Almost muscular and in my experience Chilean Pinot Noirs are rarely delicate and dainty. Let’s not forget a bit of black cherry.
Palate: Moderate chalky tannins that escalate after the wine is ingested. The wine is firm and holding back its fruit perhaps waiting for the next dermatologist convention! Yes there is raspberry, bright cherry and strawberry but it is under the covers. The psychiatrists who love Pinot Noir will no doubt attribute this to some phobia.
Personality: Geez this wine writer treats me like a medical case and it is obvious he is obsessed with the film “Double Indemnity”! I am not a lumpen proletarian wine as I am not yet available in the cheap 1.5 litre section of COSTCO!
Food Match: The winery website suggests Truffle Tagliatelle with mushroom sauce. Truffles are for pigs aren’t they? Why not a simple mushroom stroganoff?
Cellarbility: Tell urologists this wine needs 3-5 years to evolve they’ll be in erection heaven! Oooh complexity they will moan!
Price: $29.95 (Ontario).
RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 93/100. Timatkin.com 96.
(Leyda Lot 21 2019 Pinot Noir, D.O. Valle de Leyda, VSPT Avda, Santiago, Chile, 750 mL, 14%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 10576).
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