2010 Chacra 32 Treinta y Dos Pinot Noir

(12% alcohol): Medium red. Dark cherry, boysenberry, licorice, herbs and aromatic spices on the nose. Juicy, spicy and dense but the cola and chocolate flavors come off as rather foursquare and oaky following the 2011 Cincuenta y Cinco. Finishes savory and dry, with dusty tannins. Until recently, Chacra's two high-end pinots were released together. But this 2010 came out later: it spent 22 months in all-new French oak, and is currently in the marketplace along with the 2011 Cincuenta y Cinco, which aged for 14 months in all-used barrels. My scores should make it clear which approach to elevage I preferred.

The 2010 Treinta y Dos shows slightly reductive aromas from the barrel with toast and toffee notes over the core of wild berries. Until that vintage this wine was sourced from a vineyard planted in 1932 - hence its name - and was aged in 100% new 225-liter French oak barrels for one year. It's been in bottle for a few years now, so give it time in the decanter if you uncork one. The grapes were hand destemmed and fermented in cement. The palate shows grainy tannins and would need food. 4,898 bottles produced.||I visited Chacra and met with Piero Incisa dela Rocchetta from the Sassicaia family in Italy. His property in Río Negro, Patagonia, is devoted to the production of Pinot Noir. They have 24 hectares of vineyards, four coming into production in 2016 and the yearly output is a grand total of 120,000 bottles. The winemaker here is Han Vinding Diers of Noemía fame also in Río Negro.| There are six labels here, including a little bit of Merlot and a rosé. There are three lines of Pinot Noir, Barda, Cincuenta y Cinco and Treinta y Tres. Barda would be the entry level, fermented in cement, where some 30% to 40% of the wine matured there and rest is raised in oak barrels. In 2010 they saw the first results in the vineyard, after years of working in biodynamics since 2004. Until 2013 Barda was aged in used barrels and since that year there is 10% new oak as they stopped using new barrels for the Treinta y Dos, and the new oak is then used in entry-level wine. In 2013 there is another change, harvesting earlier, less oak (0% new oak in the top ranges) and better balance in the vineyards.| Cincuenta y Cinco (fifty-five, the year in which the vineyard was planted) is always fermented with full clusters in cement vats with indigenous yeasts (that's for all the wines, by the way) and then matured in oak barriques and since the year 2010 they started buying some 600-liter barrels. | Treinta y Dos is pure Pinot Noir from a vineyard planted in 1932, hence the name. All the wines ferment in cement and until 2011 the wine was aged in new French oak barrels and since 2012 there is no new oak whatsoever (the barrels are seasoned by the entry-level Barda). | They are also experimenting with some unsulfured wines, with grapes obtained form the 1955 Pinot Noir vineyard, fermented in well-seasoned oak barrels where it matured in contact with the lees to protect the wine from oxidations until is bottled unfiltered, which might be sold in limited quantities.| These are the best Pinot Noirs from Argentina, reaching in a vintage like 2013 world-class level. Bravo Piero and Hans! eRobertParker.com.August, 2015