LEYDA 2008 CLASSIC PINOT NOIR

  

If you had bet us we’d have a Pinot Noir on the front cover for November, we’d tell you that while it is our preference to have a nice, versatile, low priced Pinot around this time of year, we’re always going to pick what we think is the best wine, period, within our parameters.  If you had asked us where our next great Pinot Noir value was going to come from, we guarantee you the last place we would have guessed would have been the Central Valley.  But not the Central Valley of California, which might have almost made sense.  This ‘Central Valley’ is a new appellation we were not previously aware of, in Chile, west of Santiago about seven miles from the Pacific Ocean.  The plantings here were really only developed in the mid-90s and this is the winery’s fourth vintage and the first time in this market.  Historically, it’s rare for us to get excited about any varietal from Chile that doesn’t start with the letter ‘C’ (Cab, Chard. and Carmenere) but this appears to be a breakthrough with this varietal.  The flavor profile runs somewhere between a really good Cru Beaujolais or a riper Kiwi Pinot, with aromas of tea, mulberry, and mineral and cool-edged but sweet, generous flavors of black cherry, clove, plum and coffee.  Medium weight with sweetness to the fruit and a tender edge to the texture, but fresh and lifted atop just the right acidity, we haven’t seen  many examples of Chilean Pinot at this level and the quality/price situation here  was striking enough for us to take serious note.   Is this new appellation going to make Chile a player in the Pinot game, or is this a “one trick” pony?  Doesn’t really matter and we have what we want, a tasty well-priced Pinot offering to serve up with roast bird, salmon, ahi, pork dishes, or even a beef bourguignon.  You can put a little chill on it too if you like, but it can deliver either way.  Excellent value.