wine recommendation: cono sur vision pinot noir

So one thing that I feel I've kind of neglected in this space is writing about wine. There are a number of reasons why I haven't written much about it but that is neither here nor there. The larger point is that I plan to make a more concerted effort to write (at least a little something) about the wines I try. With that in mind, I want to take a moment from my day to wax poetic about a lovely wine that came into my life this weekend.

As with so many good wines, I discovered this one at a Food Matters tasting. Having written in both DCist and (more extensively) this blog about the Food Matters tastings and my love for Christy and her incredibly fun, relaxed and welcoming way of teaching people about wine, I will spare you the recap (if you aren't familiar, read the previous pieces to get some background) of what a tasting there is like. Instead, I just want to recognize a fantastic wine I was introduced to at a tasting this past weekend.

The tasting was focused on Chilean wines and, not having tasted many wines from Chile before, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Would there be a signature grape (like malbec has become for Argentina)? Or would it be grapes that I recognize? Turns out it was a mix of both. Carmenere is a signature grape for Chile, however, we also tasted a sauvignon blanc, a pinot noir, and a cabernet sauvignon. All of the five wines we tasted were interesting, and I found two of them to be excellent, two to be good, and one I didn't particularly like. Of the two that were excellent, one was so astonishingly good for the price that I feel compelled to share.

The second wine we tasted was a Cono Sur pinot noir from their Vision line. I will admit that when I looked at the tasting notes and saw the price of the wine was about $15 a bottle I was prepared to have a decent pinot but nothing earth shattering. Due to it's burst of popularity in the last few years (thanks a lot Sideways), good pinot noir has gotten pricey. Most of the good bottles I've had have been between $25 and $45 a bottle. There has been the occasional $20 bottle that has been good, but those were usually bottles that had been marked down.

All of that just goes to say that I am not prepared to see a decent pinot noir for under $20. So when Christy poured this wine, I was prepared for it to be drinkable, enjoyable, but not amazing. Once I smelled it though, I started to get excited. The smell was heavy on fruit but with a bit of spice and a pleasing warmth and smoothness. If it tasted anything like it smelled then I had just found a new wine to love. Once I took my first sip, I was shocked. I had to check the price again to make sure I'd read it correctly. The wine was incredibly smooth and warm without a lot of the big, assertive tannins that a lot of American pinots have. This wine was incredibly elegant and complex but at the same time extremely drinkable and could easily be enjoyed without food or with light hors d'oeuvres.

So that's my wine recommendation for this week. An extremely smooth and complex wine for a fantastic price. It's listed as $14.99 but I've seen it online for as low as $12 a bottle. Shipping cost brings the price up to at least $15 so you're probably better off picking it up locally unless you want to order a whole case.

Enjoy!