A few months ago we announced the best 100 wines of the world in 2020 in our Top 100 Wines of 2020 report, and top of the list was Argentina’s Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2018. As well as winning our Wine of the Year award, it was also our Argentine wine of the year. We gave a special nod to this great pinot of Chacra because it is also from biodynamically farmed grapes and from a special place at the end of the world in Patagonia.
The man behind this wine is Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, who founded Bodega Chacra in 2004 and is also one of the shareholders of Italy’s famous Tuscan estate of Tenuta San Guido, producers of Sassicaia. He and James got together on a Zoom discussion last week to talk about this amazing wine, and also to discuss the winery's goal to create wines that express the climate, micro-climate, and terroir of Argentina’s Rio Negro region of Patagonia. Chacra's pinot noir vineyards were originally planted in 1932 ("treinta y dos") and they are now organically certified. Piero's spectacular pinots show there’s more to Argentina’s excellent red wines than bold, bright malbecs.
During the Zoom call they tasted the Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2018 and talked about some of the factors that made the wine so good and how biodynamic practices influenced the wine. "If you work very hard, excellence can be achieved and that lifts everyone up," commented Piero. Watch the video above for the full discussion.
The tasting note for the wine they tasted is below (subscribers only):
