by Patrick Ogle
A Los Viñateros Bravos Canto A Lo Divino Itata Valley cinsault 2014 is a light wine. You can look right through it in the glass. Its nose is sort of restrained. I struggled to get much in the way of fruit from a sniff but when you taste you get red fruit, light red fruits cherry, perhaps raspberry. What you get most here is minerality. It is a quite minerally red. There are strong tannins here for such a light wine. I also kept thinking about crushed stone, pumice perhaps.
Whenever I sniff a wine this light I always think of the lighter versions of Beaujolais but this is lighter than the Cru Beaujolais and it is so much more intricate and complicated than any noveau or Beaujolais-Village. It is yet another of those false comparisons that we all naturally come up with. We try to compare to something familiar and it is a hard habit to break. Cinsault is its own thing.
In this case (and many others) it is a fairly light red wine but it need not be. There are examples of cinsault with more body. Don't let "light" make you think this is a simple wine. It has depth and complexity. It is also handpicked and uses native yeasts.
This wine comes from the "wild" wine region of Itata. They have been making wine in the area for over five centuries, even though other areas of Chile, these days, are more well known. Wines from the area, including this one, are often made with minimal intervention--organic, dry farmed (no irrigation). They are not trying to be cool and hip. It is just how they've always done it. Itata may be one of the most interesting wine regions in the world these days because of the juxtaposition of a long tradition with innovation. This isn't a strange wine. It is a quite approachable light red that helps debunk the notion that "light" is the same as "simple" or even "bad."
Find out some more about Itata HERE.
A Los Viñateros Bravos Canto A Lo Divino Itata Valley cinsault 2014 is a light wine. You can look right through it in the glass. Its nose is sort of restrained. I struggled to get much in the way of fruit from a sniff but when you taste you get red fruit, light red fruits cherry, perhaps raspberry. What you get most here is minerality. It is a quite minerally red. There are strong tannins here for such a light wine. I also kept thinking about crushed stone, pumice perhaps.
Whenever I sniff a wine this light I always think of the lighter versions of Beaujolais but this is lighter than the Cru Beaujolais and it is so much more intricate and complicated than any noveau or Beaujolais-Village. It is yet another of those false comparisons that we all naturally come up with. We try to compare to something familiar and it is a hard habit to break. Cinsault is its own thing.
In this case (and many others) it is a fairly light red wine but it need not be. There are examples of cinsault with more body. Don't let "light" make you think this is a simple wine. It has depth and complexity. It is also handpicked and uses native yeasts.
This wine comes from the "wild" wine region of Itata. They have been making wine in the area for over five centuries, even though other areas of Chile, these days, are more well known. Wines from the area, including this one, are often made with minimal intervention--organic, dry farmed (no irrigation). They are not trying to be cool and hip. It is just how they've always done it. Itata may be one of the most interesting wine regions in the world these days because of the juxtaposition of a long tradition with innovation. This isn't a strange wine. It is a quite approachable light red that helps debunk the notion that "light" is the same as "simple" or even "bad."
Find out some more about Itata HERE.
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