Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Features a juicy and intense core of pineapple, quince and yellow plum fruit waiting to burst forth, kept in check for now by racy acacia and honeysuckle notes, harnessed through the finish by a hazelnut husk detail. Shows terrific length and range, but needs time to unwind. Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Best from 2023 through 2045. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 1,000 cases made.
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James Suckling
Wow. This is really energetic and lively with a spicy and smoky edge from the noble rot, which gives depth and dimension to the rich palate of caramel and cooked apples. Delicious finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Doisy-Vedrines is redolent of musk perfume, beeswax and lemon marmalade with lime cordial and floral wafts in the background. Rich and fantastically intense, the palate packs in the citrus and savory layers with a crisp backbone to balance and a long, lifted finish. I love the purity and energy of this wine! 94+
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Wine Enthusiast
Soft and rounded, this wine is open and layered with flavors of ripe yellow fruits and navel oranges. It is cut with spice and a dry core. The wine will age well, so drink from 2023.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Decanter
A well judged wine with a good attack, showing nectarines, tinned peaches, lemongrass, white pepper and touches of truffle. The acidity could be a touch higher, but this is a very well-handled wine that delivers clear minerality, freshness and citrus fruit. Just not as concentrated as in some years.
Barrel Sample
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.
Sweet and unctuous but delightfully charming, the finest Sauternes typically express flavors of exotic dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, dried citrus peel, honey or ginger and a zesty beam of acidity.
Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle are the grapes of Sauternes. But Sémillon's susceptibility to the requisite noble rot makes it the main variety and contributor to what makes Sauternes so unique. As a result, most Sauternes estates are planted to about 80% Sémillon. Sauvignon is prized for its balancing acidity and Muscadelle adds aromatic complexity to the blend with Sémillon.
Botrytis cinerea or “noble rot” is a fungus that grows on grapes only in specific conditions and its onset is crucial to the development of the most stunning of sweet wines.
In the fall, evening mists develop along the Garonne River, and settle into the small Sauternes district, creeping into the vineyards and sitting low until late morning. The next day, the sun has a chance to burn the moisture away, drying the grapes and concentrating their sugars and phenolic qualities. What distinguishes a fine Sauternes from a normal one is the producer’s willingness to wait and tend to the delicate botrytis-infected grapes through the end of the season.