Errázuriz’s Las Piazarras Pinot Noir, Las Piazarras Chardonnay, and Las Piazarras Syrah are acknowledged as amongst Chile’s finest wines. Leading critics such as James Suckling, Jancis Robinson, and Robert Parker have all lavished impressive scores upon the wines, with Parker rating all vintages as ‘Outstanding.’
The MWH Wine team are huge fans of these wines, and we’re delighted to be able to offer you the chance to buy Las Piazarras wines from a selection of exceptional recent vintages. Such is our admiration for these Chilean wine classics that we’ve put together this guide to Errazuriz’s Las Pizarras wines. We’ll look at the history of the wines, looking at the vineyards’ exceptional terroir, and share some of our and leading critics’ tasting notes.
We hope you'll find this blog on the magnificent wines of Las Pizarras to be of interest to you. We currently have an offer on some museum vintages of Las Pizarras wines available to buy. If you would like some advice, please get in touch by calling Mike on 0118 984 4654 or by emailing MWH Wines. A recognised authority on wine, Mike will happily advise you on all things Las Pizarras.
Errazuriz’s Las Pizarras: A Little History
When a winery like Errazuriz decides to make an ultra-premium collection of wines, you know the results will be spectacular. Founded in 1870 by Don Maximiano Errázuriz in 1870 in the Aconcagua valley ninety kilometres north of Santiago, this pioneer of Chilean wine was quick to see the potential of this area with its warm Mediterranean climate, its plentiful supply of water and free-draining alluvial soils. His genius was in recognising its potential for noble grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, which, with later heat-loving, long-ripening grapes such as Syrah and Merlot, forged Aconcagua’s reputation as a fine wine centre.
Over time different plots have been established to suit different varieties. For example, the Aconcagua Costa Oeste vineyard, which lies just twelve kilometres from the Pacific and enjoys cooling sea breezes, is perfect for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Don Maximiano’s decedents have built on his achievements. Today they produce a range of excellent everyday drinking wines, plus a collection of premium examples, including the impressive Don Maximiano.
Las Pizarras Vineyards
Chile is often cited as a perfect location for vines. Altitude, heat, cooling ocean air, and sensational soils make for a vine’s idea of heaven. The fruit for the Las Pizarras wines is sourced entirely from the Aconcagua Costa Estate from specific blocks that have a significant component of metamorphic rock, including slate (‘pizarras’, in Spanish). Given the extremes of this cool climate site, as well as the uniqueness of its soils and elevations, each small block ripens at its own pace – which is ideal for noble varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah, all of which develop added complexity given extended hang time on the vine.
The proximity to the cooling Pacific Ocean and the site’s well-drained soils, with high levels of slate and metamorphic rock, allow the Costa Estate to produce fruit of exceptional complexity, depth, minerality, and natural acidity.
Las Pizzarras Style
The idea behind Las Pizzarras was to create a wine that captured a sense of place and reflected the exceptional terroir on which the vines were grown. Individualistic, aristocratic, and showing the finest traits of their varieties and the vintages which produced them, the wines have styles that can be summaried as:
- Las Pizzarras Pinot Noir –generosity of fruit – black cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and plums – complemented by well-judged, seamlessly integrated oak, spices, and balancing freshness. A complex, medium-bodied wine that drinks well young but which can age.
- Las Pizzarras Chardonnay – for many, this is the finest of the Las Pizzarras wines. Crystalline green and amber-skinned orchard fruits, creamy oak, and lively citrus abound in youth, but with two or three years in bottle – when it shows its best in our experience – it takes on secondary tones of smoke, peaches, and honey.
- Las Pizzarras Syrah –deeply coloured, and offering a spiced dried black fruit nose, there’s more than a whiff of the Rhône about the Las Pizzarras Syrah. On the palate, it has greater generosity, and the tannic framework is less austere and forbidding in youth. The fruit is abundant and runs the gamut from cherries and prunes to raspberries and loganberries. While we’ve yet to have a bottle with a decade or so of age on it, we feel certain that it will be sensational.
Las Pizzarras: What The Critics Say
Since its inaugural vintage in 2012, Las Pizarras has consistently won praise and high scores from critics. The Chardonnay has been described as ‘… clearly the best in Chile’ by James Suckling, while the Pinot Noir has won ‘Outstanding’ ratings from Robert Parker’s ‘The Wine Advocate’ with marks of 95+.
Below is a collection of recent critics’ feedback on these wonderful wines. If you would like to experience the beauty of these wines for yourself, you can buy La Pizarras Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah from MWH Wines here.
2019 Las Pizarras Chardonnay - 97 points Wine Advocate
“The effervescent palate and the intensely mineral and salty character defines the 2019 Las Pizarras Chardonnay from the Aconcagua Costa appellation, which makes it one of the finest, most elegant and complex whites from South America. The parameters here are mind boggling: 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.01 and 8.47 grams of acidity measured in tartaric acid, which means contained ripeness, austerity and exceptional freshness, which they achieved through a very early harvest and only partial malolactic. ... The whole clusters were pressed, the juice put to decant naturally and then fermented in French barriques (19% of them 400-liter and new), where it matured for 13 months. Like the rest of the barrel-fermented Chardonnays, there is no trace of oak, and the wine has a subtle and elegant profile, with complexity and depth despite its young age. One-fourth of the volume went through malolactic fermentation, and the wine has volume, length and freshness. It's crystalline and symmetric and has terrific balance and all the ingredients for a nice development in bottle. It's elegant and subtle, more serious and less exuberant than in cooler years. It has a long and dry finish with a mineral and saline sensation that makes it very tasty, with citrus notes in the aftertaste. This is superb, more like the 2017 and 2015. Somehow, this wine seems to work better in warmer years.“
2019 Las Pizarras Chardonnay - James Suckling
“A complex, structured young chardonnay and clearly the best in Chile. It shows lavender, sliced green apples, white peaches, flint and stone. Quince. Sea wood. Cement. Salt. Very complex. Full-bodied, yet very tight with a linear, compressed palate. Energetic acidity. Endless finish.”
2019 Las Pizarras Chardonnay98 Patricio Tapia - Descorchados
Since its first vintage in 2014, this Chardonnay has been setting the standard for the new Chardonnays from the Chilean coast. From three blocks rich in slate soils in the Aconcagua Costa zone, about 12 kilometres from the sea, 100% of this wine was aged in barrels, although with just 20% new oak and 25% malolactic fermentation to preserve the acidity in a warm year. The result is a wine with citrusy acidity along with those salty touches characteristic of a coastal wine. The texture on the palate is exuberant in its silkiness, the fruity flavors are mixed with the salt, and the finish is long. Keep this bottle under lock and key for the next five years.
2018 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir - 96 points Wine Advocate
There is a jump in quality in the 2018 Aconcagua Costa "Las Pizarras" Pinot Noir, from what was a cold year in Aconcagua Costa, slightly drier and slightly cooler than 2016. So, I'm not surprised this cool-climate variety behaved quite well. The wine has great purity and transparency and is very clean and expressive, with good complexity and aromas of blood orange and sour cherries, a note of iron and a touch of cinnamon. They used some full clusters in the fermentation, which seems to have added some grip, and the wine matured mostly in 300- and 500-liter oak barrels. It has abundant, fine-grained tannins, good weight and juicy fruit and comes through as nicely textured, balanced and elegant but not heavy or ripe. The wine is a lot more elegant, and I think it's the best vintage so far of a wine that can now be the benchmark for the variety in Chile.
2018 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir - Patricio Tapia - Descorchados
…It’s fresh on the nose and palate, and the red fruits are radiant. But that’s not all—it also has a strong earthy component in the midst of that fruit. Little by little it gains in complexity, in layers of flavors. A pinot that has a long life ahead [MS1] in terms of showing its origins, but that has already made much progress along that route.
2019 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir - 95 points The Wine Advocate
The 2019 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir, Aconcagua Costa Pinot Noir from slate (pizarra) soils, is mellow and soft in this vintage. The grapes were picked early, between February 26th and 28th, and after a four- to five-day cold soak, they fermented in small open vats with 15% full clusters and 12 to 20 days of maceration. It's perfumed and floral with notes of roses and red fruit and a faint twist of iron. It has structure and a chalky texture, with good depth. It's long and tasty, with very fine tannins and a bitter twist in the finish. It matured in French oak barrels, 45% of them new, for 13 months.
2021 Las Pizarras Chardonnay -98 points James Suckling
Punchy minerals cut through the creamy lemon and limey citrus, almost like licking wet stones! Some green apples, too. Steely, with a hint of white flowers and white almond. Very transparent and vertical but this is not a typical full-bodied chardonnay, it is rather linear, tense and electric. Sharpened minerality lingers in a lengthy, mineral finish. An extremely gastronomic and mouthwatering Chardonnay. Drink now or hold.”
2021 Las Pizarras Pinot Noir -96 points James Suckling
Exotic flowers, lavender and spices jump out from the glass with wild red and blue berries. Fresh goji berries, tile and mineral. Pure, juicy and tight on the palate with very chalky tannins. Mineral tension. Drink or hold.
2021 Las Pizarras Syrah - 92/100 Patricio Tapia - Descorchados
A typical example of a coastal Syrah, this is exuberant with tones of sweet black fruit and touches of black olives. It's round and friendly on the palate, built on soft and airy tannins. The firm and vibrant marine acidity begins to put its share of freshness in the middle of this ripeness. This comes from vineyards near the coast of Aconcagua, about 15 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean.
Buy Las Pizarras Wines
There’s no doubt that Errazruriz’s Las Pizarras wines are fit to rank with the finest in the world. Within a few vintages, they have taken the wine world by storm, leaving critics and wine lovers thirsting for more.
MWH currently has a collection of Las Pizarras wines for sale. These include small quantities of the magnificent La Pizarras 2017 Pinot Noir and the 96-point 2018 Chardonnay, alongside the extraordinary newly released La Pizarras 2021 Syrah, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. You can browse our Las Pizarras collection here, but if you would like some advice, please get in touch by calling Mike on 0118 984 4654 or by emailing MWH Wines. A recognised authority on wine, Mike will happily advise you on all things Las Pizarras.
