Right from the attic of the Pinot Universe: Barranco Oscuro El Pino Rojo 2016, Andalusia

This time we are off to the attic of the Pinot universe! Well, at least approx. 1400 m high vinyards in Andalusia's Sierra Nevada sounds pretty convincing that this might be actually the highest Pinot Noir there is. Perhaps there are some Pinothiasts in Yunnan or arable niches in Tibet with a few even higher Pinot Noir vines! Who know!? I don't, nor do I care! Today we are about 30 km south east of Granada on the southern foothills of the might Sierra Nevada in a district called Costa-Albondón. Lorenzo Valenzuela of Barranco Oscuro, son to founder Manuel Valenzuela – one of Spain's natrual wine pioneers, cultivates a broad vareity of mostly French grapes. Well, there is even some Riesling and some more classical Spaniards like Albarino or Tempranillo, too. Starting in the early 1980s, most vines have been planted on predominately slate'y soils at an elevation between 1280 to 1368 meters above sealevel. The vines for today's El Pino Rojo 2016 Pinot Noir have been planted in 1996 on a tiny strip of just 0.6 ha. Let's hold my theoretical input horeses and just give it a go ...

Starting with the colour: quite some Andalusian garnet fire I dare to write! With quite a bit of transparency and dazzling radiance! In the nose: plenty of juniper, dried dark cherries, even some tomatoes, smokey pepper steak, breadcrust and probably a bit too much Kirschwasser. Nevertheless a surprisingly cool, vivid and lean character. Quite unsusual for so much Kirschwasser in a Pinot. On the palate: something like a cool mountain stream filled with quite a lot of Chartreuse. The typical herbaceous characteristis were rather evident. Kirsch was definitely much more shy on the palate! Actually, on the first day quite an ethereal hammer (15%) which was not easy to "understand"! On the second day overall much more gentle and willing to intigrate. Flavours of dark cherries, dried tomatoes, hints of tobacco, brute bull sweat, juniper, roses – dried of course - and a hints of rosemary were present all along. Convincingly gripping acid, 0.0 jaminess and some forceful and lean tannin provided this unusual elevated-cool-cilmate Pinot with some crisp gentleness which might be hard to imagine considering the 15% (by the way other vintages have substantially less)! Whatever, perhaps not really me, buuut quite some decent**** - with a little bit less, you know what I mean, even very decent***** - suff ...