2024 Laberinto - Pinot Noir Cenizas (750ml)

Rafael Tirado, one of ten children who built a decades long career making wine around the world and consulting for numerous Chilean wineries, purchased land in the eastern Maule Valley along the front range of the Andes and planted his first estate vines there in 1993. He set many of the rows in a winding, labyrinthine pattern, an idea that gave the estate its name and reflects his belief that complexity, in a vineyard as in life, produces something more interesting. Tirado's property sits within the Colbún appellation, where he remains one of the only estate producers, farming his vines organically and biodynamically out of a small, gravity fed winery he built himself.

Cenizas comes from a single vineyard of Pinot Noir that Tirado planted in 1998 on volcanic ash over granite soils, at an elevation of about 1,800 feet along the shore of the Colbún Reservoir. The grapes are hand harvested, given a few days of cold maceration, and fermented with native yeast, including a portion of whole clusters to add texture and lift. The wine then matures for roughly ten to twelve months in used four hundred liter French oak barrels before bottling.

The wine shows a pale red orange color with luminous aromas of raspberry, wild strawberry, and eucalyptus, layered with forest floor, clove, and cinnamon. The palate is bright and silky, offering red plum and cranberry with a savory, mineral undercurrent that reflects the volcanic soil. It pairs nicely with grilled salmon, pork tenderloin, or a warm lentil stew.