Casa Marín 2024 Pinot Noir Litoral Vineyard

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

• Casa Marín sits in Lo Abarca, a village in Chile’s San Antonio Valley just 4 km from the Pacific — the closest commercial vineyard to the ocean in Chile. María Luz Marín founded the estate in 2000, against the advice of colleagues and experts who told her grapes would never ripen there, and remains the only Chilean woman to have founded and made wine at her own winery under her own name.
• The second generation runs it today: Nicolás Marín, Felipe Marín and his wife Jamie Verbraak. Felipe, María Luz’s youngest son, studied viticulture in Sonoma and enology in Marlborough, New Zealand, and has made the wines here for more than fifteen years — minimal intervention, letting Lo Abarca speak for itself.
• The estate farms 40 hectares in 59 blocks, 90% of them on hillsides, some severely steep; Decanter has called it one of Chile’s most radical vineyards. In 2018 Casa Marín was granted its own D.O., Lo Abarca — the first winery in Chile to earn an appellation of its own. Thirty people work here, most for more than a decade.

ABOUT THE WINE

• Litoral is the low sector of the estate’s Pinot Noir, planted in 2000 — 4.33 hectares, own-rooted, clones 777 and 115, east-west exposure at 35–50 m, 2 x 1 m spacing. Thirty centimeters of clay over calcareous subsoil.
• It faces the ocean 4 km away and takes the marine breeze all day, which stresses the vines into small clusters with concentrated flavor and high natural acidity; summer temperatures do not exceed 28°C, mornings bring fog, and spring brings frost.
• The 2024 season was defined by an unprecedented rabbit attack — in spring the young vines’ roots give off an aroma that draws rabbits, which gnaw the roots, and that year they went after 20-year-old Riesling as well. White yields fell by roughly half. Pinot Noir went the other way: it was the estate’s best-producing variety of the vintage at over 7,000 kilos per hectare, against a normal 5 tons.

Vintage: 2024 | Wine Type: Red Wine
Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir
Origin: Chile | Appellation: D.O. Lo Abarca, San Antonio Valley
Vineyard: Litoral — planted 2000, own-rooted, clones 777 + 115 (French), 35–50 m elevation
Farming: Certified sustainable by Wines of Chile; vineyard and winery run on 100% renewable energy. Drip irrigated, vertical trellis.
Elaboration: Hand-harvested the third week of March, picked on taste in the vineyard rather than to a target Brix. All fruit hand-sorted, moved by gravity into open-top tanks or by must pump depending on the lot; maximum 30 ppm SO₂ at reception. Mostly destemmed with some whole clusters co-fermented, and one or two tanks carbonically macerated each vintage for added complexity in the final blend. Cold-soaked three days at ~10°C, then fermented with native yeast in open-top stainless of 3,000–5,000 liters. Punchdowns with occasional pumpovers for temperature evenness; a minimum of two weeks on skins, with daily tasting deciding when to press. Post-fermentation maceration case by case, for mid-palate weight. Pneumatic pressing. Malolactic fermentation spontaneous, in 225 L and 500 L barrel.
Conservation: Aged 100% in fifth-use French 225-liter barrels for 14 months — no new oak. Filtered with diatomaceous earth and 0.65-micron cartridges. Bottled August 2025, four months in bottle before release.
Format: 12 x 750 ml
Winemaker: Felipe Marín

TASTING NOTES

Elegant and refined — bright cherry and red fruit, fresh blueberry, a touch of smoke. Firm acidity and a smooth texture frame persistent red-fruit flavors through a long, balanced finish. Built to age 10–15 years. Serve at 58–60°F.

TECHNICAL DATA

Production: 3,278 cases | Alcohol: 13.5% | TA: 5.3 g/l | VA: 0.37 g/l | Residual Sugar: 1.4 g/l | pH: 3.11

PRESS & POINTS

2024 – 92 Points, James Suckling
Previous vintages – 93 Points, Guía Alistair Cooper MW by Catad’Or