Alban Estate Viognier 2019
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A Central Coast bottling that is often more than 75% from our own vineyard, and an Estate bottling. The former showcases the forward heady stone fruit of this variety. It is fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel and bottled early. Our Estate Viognier is barrel fermented with native yeasts and bottled unfined and unfiltered. It shows the body and length of the variety along with the mineral and apricot notes that it can achieve.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the finest examples of this variety I’ve tasted from the New World is the 2019 Viognier Estate from John Alban. Coming from a cooler, wetter year, it offers a monster bouquet of caramelized tangerine and crushed stone fruits as well a flowery, honeysuckle, and spice core that’s something to behold. Full-bodied and concentrated, yet with bright acidity and a crisp, focused style on the palate, it’s straight-up stunning juice. Hats off to John Alban for another spectacular Viognier.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Viognier Estate is delicately styled this vintage, with bright orange peel, jasmine and peach aromas, a silky texture and lively, shimmering mineral character in the mouth. This finish is long and pure and suggests it may evolve in bottle over the next 2-3 years. Alban's Viognier from Edna Valley shows so much poise and class and is the antithesis of the riper style often found in California.
Other Vintages
2004-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Wine
Enthusiast
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Robert
Parker
Full-figured and charmingly floral, Viognier is one of the most important white grapes of the northern Rhône where it is used both to produce single varietal wines and as an important blending grape. Look for great New World examples from California, Oregon, Washington and cooler parts of Australia. Somm Secret—Viognier plays a surprisingly important role in the red wines of Côte Rôtie in the northern Rhône. About 5% Viognier is typically co-fermented with the Syrah in order to stabilize the color, and as an added benefit, add a subtle perfume.
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.