Winemaker Notes
Doisy Daene wine has a style of its own that privileges a bursting fruit concentrated by "noble rot," strength, balance and subtlety of the flavors. The Doisy Daene style is all at once the expression of a great calcareous soil and a truly aesthetic family tradition, the one of distinguished white wines, of crystal-like purity, combining power and freshness, in an infinite youth. Made with 100% Semillon.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Rich and powerful, this is a seductive Barsac that has a great balance of acidity and sweetness, nothing too over the top, full of lime zest and mandarin, with tongue-licking slate on the finish. Great stuff, extremely well balanced.
Barrel Sample: 96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale lemon-gold in color, the 2020 Doisy Daëne shoots from the glass with vibrant scents of lime cordial, orange blossoms and preserved ginger, plus suggestions of wild mushrooms, honey-drizzled pears and nutmeg. The palate is seductively rich and viscous with a beautifully balanced backbone of acidity and loads of earth and spice accents complementing the preserved citrus flavors, finishing long, lifted and lively. A very impressive achievement!
Barrel Sample: (94 - 96)
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Vinous
The 2020 Doisy-Daëne has a wonderful bouquet with wild honey, saffron, white chocolate and quince, very focused and has one of the most intense noses you will find in this vintage. The palate is exquisite in terms of balance; a razor-sharp line of acidity effortlessly slices through the layered botrytized fruit. This is a magnificent Barsac. –Neal Martin
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James Suckling
Mangoes, peaches, lemon pie and honey on the nose. Hint of mushrooms. It’s medium-bodied with excellent balance and a savory element to the sweet tropical fruit. Gorgeous length. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
A dense wine, rich and full of ripe fruits, this has intense honey and young spice and tropical fruits. Its balance is completed by the wine's acidity and fresh aftertaste. Drink from 2027.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Unctuous and open-knit, with heather, elderflower honey, creamed yellow apple and yellow plum notes gliding through. Rounded, easy finish. Drink now through 2035.
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.