Drinking More Chilean Wine

Posted on January 24, 2009 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine from the PR folks for Wines of Chile

Continuing down the road of tasting wines from Chile in 2009, I chose the 2007 Cono Sur 20 Barrels Pinot Noir for the evening. The story of the 20 Barrels is that the winery designates 20 barrels of Pinot Noir as the best of the year and sets them aside for a special barreling. Hence the name! The wine hails from the Casablanca Valley in Chile, clocks in at 14% alcohol by volume, has a real cork closure, and can be purchased for around $22-$25.

On the nose I found strawberry, tobacco, cherry, spice, herbs, brown sugar, and bright fruit. the nose displayed fairly classic varietal characteristics which made me happy…Pinot Noir that does that under the $30 markseems increasing hard to find!  In the mouth, the fruit seemed darker than what I found on the nose.  I got black cherry, raspberries, plums, a little earth, and cinnamon.

The wine had some tannins, it is very young afterall, and appeared to me as if it could use a bit more time to mellow…maybe decant this one!  While we drank it on its own, it would have been great with all the salmon we ate this summer, or with an herbed roast chicken dish.

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Filed under: Chile, Pinot Noir, Red, Wine |

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9 Responses

  1. michael, on January 24, 2009 at 12:06 pm said:

    i was not that thrilled with the Con Sur, for about the same price I believe the
    Folie a deux meanage a trois 2007 red table wine is much better with HINTS of chocolate and mint

  2. Rob, on January 24, 2009 at 4:58 pm said:

    Thanks for posting! I hope the other wines I sent find your fancy.

  3. Sonadora, on January 24, 2009 at 5:05 pm said:

    Hi Michael, thanks for commenting. I think we might be talking about 2 different wines. Cono Sur makes an entry level Pinot Noir at the $12 price point (similar to the price of the wine you mention) and they make the wine I’m talking about here, which is a reserve level wine at the $22-$25 price point. I haven’t tried the wine you mention, but I will keep my eye out.

    Rob-Liking them so far. Think I’ve consumed 4 now…!

  4. michael, on January 24, 2009 at 5:24 pm said:

    I will try to get my hands on it . I did not look ar the original post to see that we were only talking about chilean wines.
    sorry

  5. Sonadora, on January 24, 2009 at 6:46 pm said:

    Oh, no, not that we are only talking about Chilean wines, I’m always on the lookout for good table wines, so thanks for the tip! I wanted to make sure we were talking about the same Cono Sur! I’ve had the $12 before as well, and like you, wasn’t blown away by it. However, I did like this one,the 20 Barrels, their next level up!

  6. michael, on January 24, 2009 at 8:48 pm said:

    ok
    so I went to my wine guy today, as much as i am a wine guy, and although they do not carry the reservre ,they thought as a buyer it was not much different from the 8.99 price for them to carry it .But
    who knows? and what is my point ,I have no idea.

  7. Sonadora, on January 24, 2009 at 8:59 pm said:

    🙂 Well, if you’re really looking for a good Chilean red, I’d suggest the Estampa Gold I wrote about the other day. It’s a Carmenere and was absolutely fabulous!

  8. michael, on January 25, 2009 at 10:02 am said:

    I will try to pick up today!

    Thamks

  9. BS, on January 28, 2009 at 7:56 am said:

    The Cono Sur Single vineyard range is fantastic across the board – partiularly the Pinot

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