Otronia Patagonian Pinot Noir

Tasting notes & discussion 13

Typically $80/bottle from Bodega Otronia
Vintage 2020 and 2021 from Patagonia, Argentina
Available for AL; AZ; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Bodega Otronia: ““A wine defined by nature, at the edge of the impossible.” In Sarmiento, Chubut on the shores of Lake Musters, Otronia is born in a new wine region - the southernmost in the world - and along with it a new terroir and a new vision.”

Boom Underwritten By Slow Catastrophe

TASTING NOTES:

Color: Ruby red with violet hues
Taste: Pinot Noir with great character, notes of raspberries and cherries combined with herbs such as oregano, thyme, truffle and flowers. Great complexity and finesse in this splendid Patagonian wine.
Palate: Delicate and persistent structure. Silky tannins, combined with a firm natural acidity, that gives a unique vitality and depth. Of medium intensity, its great characteristics are finesse and complexity." (AbV 12.5%, pH 3.42)

VARIETALS: 100% Pinot Noir

BARRELS: Untoasted French oak foudres

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: Parallel 45’33, the latitude Otronia sits on — which also cuts through Bordeaux, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and the northern coast of Maine.

Maine gets overlooked in the American wine conversation, obviously, because Maine’s wine contribution is mostly blueberries and stubbornness. But parallel 45 running through Maine means it also runs through the Gulf of Maine, which is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet. Scientists have been watching it heat up at roughly four times the global average rate, and the lobster industry — Maine’s crown jewel, the thing on every license plate and dish towel — has been scrambling to figure out what that means. Right now it means more lobsters, actually, at least for the moment, because warming waters have been great for lobster reproduction and terrible for their traditional predators. Abundance born from disruption. A boom underwritten by a slow catastrophe.

Which, again, has nothing to do with Otronia, except that Otronia is also doing something improbable at a latitude where improbable things apparently happen. Patagonian parallel 45 brings permanent winds, brutal cold, and soils that seem almost aggressively indifferent to the idea of viticulture. The winery’s own tagline is “at the edge of the impossible,” and you get the sense they mean that literally. Lobstermen off the coast of Portland would understand the energy completely: you plant your traps, or your vines, somewhere the conditions seem almost hostile, and then you just see what the place gives you.

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

What's your relationship with doing something difficult in conditions that seem actively hostile to the whole idea?

I thrive on it — the resistance is the point

I thrive on it — the resistance is the point
I do it anyway, but I won't pretend it isn't hard

I do it anyway, but I won't pretend it isn't hard
I need to believe the place wants me there before I commit

I need to believe the place wants me there before I commit
I've learned to read hostility as a sign I'm onto something

I've learned to read hostility as a sign I'm onto something
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