Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Château Doisy-Daëne 2014 is bestowed with 144 grams per liter residual sugar and a pH of 3.7. It is much more introspective compared to the Coutet at the moment, perhaps because of less residual, but it is fragrant and ethereal with wild honey, yellow flower and orange blossom scents developing with aeration. The palate is very well balanced with superb tension and fruit intensity on the entry. It is more linear than recent vintages, minerally with a lovely twist of sour lemon imparting tension and vivacity on the crystalline finish. This is a fabulous Doisy-Daëne from Denis Dubourdieu. Range: 95-97
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Wine Enthusiast
A touch of vanilla on the nose leads to a full palate of rich honey and ripe yellow fruits. A lively acidity brings a crisp counterbalance to this weight, offering a bright citrus verve. Barrel Sample: 93-95
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Wine Spectator
Creamed pineapple, yellow apple and ginger notes form the core here, which has ample weight but moves gracefully, as orange zest and elderflower honey details stream underneath. A bitter citrus oil accent hangs on the finish for a long time. Has a lot of power for a Barsac. Best from 2020 through 2040.
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Decanter
Marmaladey botrytis bolsters ripe citrus and honeyed tropical fruit aromas and flavours. Rich, tactile and obviously sweeter than the average 2014 Sauternes, but a laser beam of acidity keeps this dancing on the palate.
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James Suckling
This shows lots of dried fruits and intensity. Full body, medium sweetness and a long, flavorful finish. Plenty of dried fruit character. Very dense. Range: 90-91
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Characterized by dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, citrus and honey, the sweet wines of Barsac are always balanced by a bright beam of acidity. While technically also part of the Sauternes region, Barsac’s sandy and limestone soils produce a lighter version in comparison. Its main grapes are the same: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle.