BODEGA CHACRA 2024 “CINCUENTA Y CINCO” PINOT NOIR – PATAGONIA

Bodega Chacra is owned by Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, whose family’s Bolgheri estate of Tenuta San Guido produces Sassicaia. The winery, which debuted with the 2004 vintage, aims to produce silky, elegantly styled Pinot Noirs. The grapes are fermented in small cement vats using semi-carbonic maceration, and only the top two bottlings are aged in barrel, with just one-third new oak. Lovers of high-octane Pinots need to look elsewhere.

Bodega Chacra (chacra is a square plot of land surrounded by poplar trees) is made up of the 6-acre parcel that goes into theTreinta y Dos bottling and a 21-acre parcel planted in 1955 that goes into the Pinot Noir Río Negro Cincuenta y Cinco. The Cincuenta y Cinco (2006 was the wine’s debut version) is heftier than the Treinta y Dos bottling, though still modest at just 13 percent alcohol. It shows a fresher and more forward briar, spice and red cherry profile. For the ’07 vintage, della Rocchetta used nitrogen during the bottling for the first time, so he expects the wines to take a little longer to evolve in the bottle. Chacra represents the boutique of the boutique, turning out handcrafted, delicately styled Pinot Noirs that are worth the effort to find.