i have added a new continent to my PN experience...

2004 Casa Marin Lo Abarca Hills, San Antonio Valley of Chile!!! ~ $40 and just wonderful.

a bit darker than a feminine RRV PN, more like a Central Coast Pinot. nose really vibrant and very typical of more expensive bottles including Burgundy wines from The Côte de Nuits. the salinity/minerality is what makes this nose so special plus there is a whiff of gasoline maybe along with tea and cola. taste is really wonderful with layers of red & black cherries and a bracing acidity that makes this wine sing with food; i had grilled swordfish last night. finish was average in length and perhaps the only quality that doesn’t scream expensive vino. a clone 777 joy!

if memory serves this is better than 04 Southing. i’d have pegged this as a more expensive Santa Rita Hills bottle and i would want to be on this list! sadly i was once in Santiago and probably close to Casa Marin on a day trip, if only i knew then what i know now.

http://www.casamarin.cl/Web-eng/index.html

bottle shape is funny and oversized unfortunately…

Hmm did you get this from Garagiste? I tried one and it was stinky…oily. Didnt like it at all…I had the thought that it might be a bad bottle, but ended up writing it off as a Garagiste flop. Got two more. Your descriptors make me think I should like it, so Ill try again this week.
–B

there was that whiff of gasoline or oil but i loved this wine. got from WL in NJ.

2005 KB RRV is a really nice wine tonight and not in the same league as Casa Marin Lo Abarca hills IMO.

Heresy! [diablo.gif]

All the PNs I had from South America were utter crap. I wish I could find a good bottle to enlighten me. But it doesn’t seem to be the strong point of this region.

while bottle #2 from this 6-pack was a bit disappointing i popped #3 last night and this was a return to excellence with notes of Iodine or Creosote noted among the dark cherries and cola. maybe rounder than before with more subtle acidity but this stood up nicely to a duck experiment tried last night. bravo for SA PN, bravo!