Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 72

FOCUS: CANARY ISLANDS
91 | Suertes del Marqués

$24

2017 Tenerife Valle de la Orotava 7 Fuentes El Lance ^ A blend of local varieties, this
includes vijariego negro, tintilla, listán negro,
baboso negro and malvasía rosada, and
emphasizes the concentrated fruit of century-old vines. Youthfully black, with a core
of red fruit and rose scents, it needs a lot of
air to get past the dry austerity of the tannins.
The bitterness of those tannins is soothed by
the juicy density of the fruit and will meld
further with bottle age. § Polaner Selections,
Mount Kisco, NY
272766

90 | Envínate

$48

2017 Tenerife Migan ^ Roberto Santana
makes this wine from two plots on the northeastern slopes of Pico del Teide, the prominent volcanic peak that helped to form
Tenerife. One parcel is on volcanic sands,
higher up the hillside, providing fruit he ferments as whole clusters, foot-trod in concrete
vats. The lower parcel has more clay, and he
destems most of that fruit, fermenting it separately. He ages the wine in old French oak
barrels-228- and 600-liter-presenting a
reticent but gentle volcanic red with sweet
red-plum flavors and terse white-pepper
minerality. This should show more of itself
with two years in bottle. § José Pastor Selections/Llaurador Wines, Fairfax, CA ■

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Wine&Spirits
72

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2019

FOCUS: MAULE & ITATA
Our blind panels tasted 62 new-release wines from the Maule and Itata valleys for this
issue. Joshua Greene, our critic for Chile, rated 14 as exceptional (90+) and 5 as Best
Buys. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.

ITA TA WHITES
124649

91 | Rogue Vine

$20

2018 Valle del Itata Grand Itata Blanco ^
A field blend of moscatel and riesling from
organically farmed bush vines planted
in 1922, this wine ferments with ambient yeasts in concrete tanks, where it then
ages for a year. With the naked reality of its
development in cement and the intriguing
outcome-a scent of orange oil and lime, a
flavor of juicy dried apricot, with bitter lees
adding depth and breadth-it could stand in
for an amber wine fermented in amphorae.
If you were in Concepción, you might drink
it with a shellfish cocido. § Brazos, Brooklyn, NY

ITA TA REDS

$20

2017 Secano Interior Itata Pencopolitano
(Best Buy) ^ Penco is the original name of the
Spanish settlement that became Concepción,
which makes Pedro Parra, who was born in
town, a Pencopolitano. This is his field blend
of cinsault and país, aged in untoasted oak
foudres and cement. It takes on some cacaobean richness as well as volatility from that
time in wood, adding a rustic edge to the
scents of strawberry and cherry. For spicy
braised pork. § Skurnik Wines & Spirits, NY

MAULE WHITES

90 | Rafael Tirado Wines
$20

2016 Valle del Itata Bravado (Best Buy) ^
Felipe Garcia makes this wine from two vineyards. One is young-vine syrah; the other is
carignan, grenache, mourvedre and petit
verdot grafted onto the 120-year-old roots of
país vines. He ages it in old neutral-oak casks
for 18 months, and there's no indication of
wood in the wine; there's just fragrant and
delicious fruit, along with chewy, savory tannins. It reminded one taster of a clearing in
the forest, and the fruit does last with a cool,
foresty tone. It's a mood-changing wine, and
if you've ever spent time in Chile, or in its
much more highly populated corollary, the
California coast, it's sure to make you happy. §
Vine Connections, Sausalito, CA
124518

92 | Pedro Parra

90 | Pedro Parra

124652

124431

93 | P.S. Garcia

texture of their skins. A fresh, finely made
country wine. § Skurnik Wines & Spirits, NY
124519

$20

2018 Valle del Maule Laberinto Sauvignon Blanc ^ Rafael Tirado grows this fruit
at his vineyard in the Andean foothills of
Maule, which benefits from the cool mountain air to produce an equally cool and zesty
sauvignon. The wine's youthful acidity is still
a bit raw, but there's plenty of substance to
the fruit to merge into the structure with
a year of bottle age. Then open it for panroasted brook trout. § Brazos, Brooklyn, NY

MAULE REDS

$20

2017 Secano Interior Itata Imaginador
(Best Buy) ^ While Pedro Parra is busy transforming geology into terroir-expressive
wines in Oregon, Cahors, Tuscany and Mendoza, to name just a few of his recent project
locales, he has also returned to the vinelands
surrounding his hometown of Concepción to
produce his own wines. He makes this one
from four growers in the Itata hills, their
vineyards all field blends focused on cinsault.
The wine sees no wood, only stainless steel
and cement, allowing the spicy red fruit to
sustain its brightness. It's an honest presentation of the Secano Interior, with the velvet flesh of red cherries and the cool, dusty

124294

92 | Oveja Negra

$27

2016 Valle del Maule The Lost Barrel ^ This
puts the dark, vibrant flavors of ripe petit verdot front and center in a blend with cabernet
franc and carignan. Journalist Jamal Rayyis
commented on "the lanolin texture of carignan absorbing the tannins while the tannic
structure is lifted by acidity." It's bright, firm

http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://www.ovejanegra.com/en/premium-the-lost-barrel-2/ http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com

Wine & Spirits - October 2019

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