2017 Bodega Chacra “Cincuenta y Cinco” Pinot Noir Rio Negro Argentina 750 ml

Sassicaia Heir Finds Grand Cru Terroir in Argentina

“I nearly fell off my chair when I first put my nose in the glass of the 2017 Cincuenta y Cinco,” raved Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate of this stunning Argentine Pinot Noir. Yes, you read that right, Argentine Pinot Noir.

Parker went on: “I cannot remember such balance and elegance in a wine from Chacra before,” and calling the 2017 “truly unbelievable,” and “refined and detailed like no other Pinot Noir from Argentina,” before giving it a knockout 97 points. From a single vineyard of old-vine Pinot Noir, this ruby red delivers heady red-berry aromas, pepper-infused red fruit, energy, mineral cut, and textural salinity—Cincuenta y Cinco is a pleasure-packed underdog that has racked up dual 97 points from James Suckling and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Just $49.99 a bottle to taste what dragged an Italian nobleman to Patagonia’s Rio Negro Valley, and discover why Patagonia is the region sommeliers are talking about when it comes to a real Burgundy rival.

When the man who created the Super Tuscan Sassicaia—Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta—is your grandfather, you’ve got big shoes to fill. The Marchese inspired an entire generation of growers, including his nephews Piero Antinori (Tignanello) and Ludovico Antinori (Ornellaia); and forever changed the landscape of the global wine industry.

But grandson Piero Incisa della Rocchetta never intended to take over the Sassicaia estate. The pioneering mastermind behind this red instead blazed his own trail, defining modern South American Pinot Noir. The New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov may have put it best, saying his wines “decisively earn whatever attention his family history initially brings him.”

In 2001, while blind-tasting with the winemakers of Sassicaia, Piero was floored by an Argentine Pinot Noir that he swore was a Grand Cru red Burgundy. Stunned, he nearly fell out of his chair, and hasn’t looked back since.

Inspired, Piero made a pilgrimage to the Rio Negro Valley in Patagonia, and couldn’t believe what he saw—a desert vineyard lined with poplar trees, set in a cool, dry climate with a constant breeze blowing softly from the Andes Mountains. Sunlight so gently warm and golden he imagined he was back on the Tuscan coast.

This wasn’t a mirage—it was an oasis. Piero bought the vineyard on the spot. Unpretentious and covered in orchards, Rio Negro doesn’t have the fancy hotels or three-star restaurants that define most luxury winegrowing regions. But it does have ancient Pinot Noir vines that express their high desert terroir in an incredible fashion. Plump, old vines of Pinot Noir cascade over the hillsides, originally planted in 1932 by Italian farmers looking for a better life.

After securing the vineyard, Piero also tracked down the winemaker who made the Pinot Noir that he had tasted back in 2001. His name was Hans Vinding-Diers, and Piero convinced Hans to come aboard, founding Bodega Chacra in 2004.

The 2017 Bodega Chacra Pinot Noir “Cincuenta y Cinco” is sourced exclusively from a vineyard planted in 1955. Equidistant from the Atlantic Ocean and the Andes Mountains, the vineyard’s sandy, desert soils are irrigated through channels excavated in the 1800s by British colonists who directed the snowmelt from the Andes. The wind blowing from the mountains gives the Pinot Noir thick skins that contribute to the overall chewy texture of the wine.

A decade after its founding, Bodega Chacra is celebrated as an iconoclastic effort—a true stand-alone, producing world-class Pinot Noir while floating above a sea of Malbec—that just might rival the Marchese’s invention of Sassicaia. Today is your chance to taste it before it becomes another untouchable icon.