Very occasionally, you come across a winery that challenges your perceptions. One that’s so exciting and unexpected that it makes you reevaluate a nation’s wines. Chile’s Las Pizarras is one of those producers.
From its Pacific Ocean-cooled base, the Aconcagua Costa Estate provides the exceptional fruit that makes Las Pizarras so special. Small block of free-draining, metamorphic rock soils, including the slate which gives the wine its name, ‘pizarras’ being Spanish for slate, make for the ideal environment for the creation of world-class Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah.
Saying that a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Syrah is of world-class quality is a bold statement. It instantly brings comparisons with top-flight Burgundies, cult wines from California and the majestic wines of the Rhône. The wines of Las Pizarras rightly bear such comparisons. As someone fortunate enough to taste successive vintages, I can say they are of equivalent quality with the bonus of Chile’s renowned affordability.
Las Pizarras: ‘Chilean Wines With A European Accent’
While Las Pizarras is of comparable quality to the great wines of Burgundy or the Rhône, they're not wannabes. Winemaker Francisco Baettig set out to make outstanding cool-climate wines that reflect the character of sites and the beauty of the fruit. So, while it’s easy to note how the Chardonnay has Burgundian steeliness or that the Syrah has the peppery bite and minerally structure of a fine Saint Joseph, these are Chilean wines through and through.
‘Chilean wines with a European accent’ is a note I’ve often scribbled as I’ve made my way through a flight of these wines. The upfront fruit and friendly charm are Chilean traits, but the level of complexity and the refined, crystalline structure is distinctly European. The same can be said of their ability to drink brilliantly young, while also being capable of long ageing. Throw in their excellent value and finesse, and you have a marriage made in heaven, a union that’s far greater than the sum of its parts.
Las Pizarras: Three Perception-Changing Chilean Wines
In producing world-class Syrah, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, Francisco has helped change perceptions of Chilean wines. In the same way that Sena and Vinedo Chadwick proved that Chile could produce world-beating Bordeaux blends, he’s shown what it's capable of with these noble varieties.
In my experience, Chilean Chardonnay has ranged from cheap and cheerful to big and bold. Elegant, structured, and age-worthy wines like the Las Pizarras Chardonnay have been nowhere to be seen. Similarly, Chilean Pinot Noir has traditionally been fruity with a slightly jammy tone, with premium examples offering a weight of slightly stewed fruit and barrel-loads of spicy oak. The cool berry intensity and nuanced complexity of the Las Pizarras came as a wonderful surprise.
Comparisons with Chilean Syrah are harder to make, as so little is made. Syrah accounts for around 6% of all plantings and is usually bottled as Shiraz. Las Pizarras Syrah is appropriately named in that it’s reserved, refined and with an underlying power and intensity you find in the Northern Rhône.
So, what do the Las Pizarras wines taste like and which ones should you try? I’d recommend looking at the following wines. Ranging in age and stages of development, they offer a fantastic view of these brilliant wines, highlighting their ability to be enjoyed young while demonstrating that patience has its own rewards.
Las Pizarras Chardonnay 2018
I love the aromas of lavender, sandalwood, sliced apples and pears. Some gunpowder and slate undertones. Full-bodied, yet formed and tight with minerality and brightness. Vivid acidity gives this energy and depth. Drinkable, but will age beautifully. James Suckling, 99
Las Pizarras Chardonnay 2021
The 2021 Las Pizarras Chardonnay is stunning, with amazing parameters, 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.07 and 8.63 grams of acidity that gives it an austere profile, elegant, vibrant, mineral and pure, extremely clean, chiseled and symmetric, with an effervescent palate and the intensely mineral and salty character that defines the best vintage of this wine. The full clusters were pressed and the juice fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak barrels, where it matured for 12 months. This is a wine with full development of aromas and flavors, subtly nuanced (marzipan, pear, white flowers) with very integrated oak and stunning precision, finishing very dry. Delicate and elegant. It's among the finest vintages, with less power than 2015, vertical and with good structure, more Chablis than Meursault. Superb! 8,900 bottles were filled in June 2022. The Wine Advocate, 97+
Las Pizarras Pinot Noir 2021
The nose of the 2021 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir is clean, floral, expressive and elegant, with purity and precision. This is clean and less earthy, with very fine tannins and full development of aromas and flavors. The grapes ripened slowly, and they developed more nuance; but the main difference can be in quality of the tannins, which are really velvety here. It has amazing freshness, reflected by a pH of 3.43. It's linear and vertical. They used a smaller percentage of full clusters in the native fermentation, 10%, and the wine matured in French oak barrels, 45% of them new, for 12 months. Superb, very elegant. 7,900 bottles were filled in June 2022. The Wine Advocate, 95+
Las Pizarras Syrah 2021
‘A beautifully exotic nose, full of tangy peppercorns, wax, black cherries, dark cherries, incense and bacon. Flowers, too. Very concentrated and juicy but nothing hefty here. Tannins are really punchy and mealy... Already drinkable now but will age beautifully. One of the best from this estate. Drink or hold.’ James Suckling 94/100
Las Pizarras: A Chilean Classic
It’s amazing to think that the Las Pizarras wines have only been available for just over a decade. They possess a class and a self-confidence that belies their tender years. These are world-class wines, and it will be fascinating to see how they develop and age. In the meantime, they make wonderful drinking wines and are ones that every wine lover should try.
Giles
Giles Luckett is a freelance wine journalist with columns in Velvet Magazine, Round & About Magazine, and Focus Life Magazine, amongst others. When not writing about wine, Giles works as Perfect Cellar’s Head of Fine Wine Sales.