Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
A gorgeous wine that offers a firm, botrytis character, with aromas of spice, apple and orange zest. It’s powerful and meant for long aging.
Barrel Sample
Range: 95-97 Points -
Wine Spectator
Pure, with piercing persimmon, pineapple, white peach and quince flavors. Gorgeous floral notes of honeysuckle and orange blossom form the backdrop, while a heather accent caresses the finish. Overwhelmingly pure in the end, with a finish that sails on and on. Best from 2016 through 2035.
-
James Suckling
A white with peaches, honey and lemon-curd character. Caramel, too. Full body, medium-sweet with a fresh, clean finish. Lots of mineral undertones and lightly toasted oak. Needs five to six years to come together. Intensely sweet in the finish. Try in 2019.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Doisy-Vedrines has a far more taciturn bouquet than the Doisy-Daene, offering its trademark tropical, peachy aromas that will hopefully develop more delineation throughout its maturation. The palate is medium-bodied with a viscous entry. There are attractive spicy notes and a satisfying build in the mouth towards its botrytis-rich, tropical finish, although on this occasion I find it needing more tension to merit a higher score. Drink 2014-2030.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 Points
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.