April 16, 2024 - Dinner with the wine group (La Bohème, Palo Alto): From a 375mL. Fabulous color, golden-orange; orange peel, citrus, slight grapefruit; palate is medium-full bodied, vibrant medium-plus acidity throughout, balanced alcohol(12.5%?), off dry sweetness; finish is long. This is a superb wine with plenty of growth ahead of it. 94
March 30, 2024 - Aged wonderfully!
February 21, 2024 - Oh yeah, this was good. Did a savory pairing with roasted chicken and wow, wine was singing. Honeyed and rich, but amazingly fresh and light on its feet! Feels like it should be at the end of its life, but this bottle would have lasted for some time yet. Though I'm not sure it's going to improve. Anyway, gorgeous gold color. Mouth-coating and lush, but clear tones of flowers and apricot. Honeysuckle! Some ginger forward roasted carrots with a sweet, tangy, umami sauce was a welcome accompaniment. But the simplest roasted chicken just went perfectly.
February 4, 2024 - Opened during the holidays, held under gas and tasted many times since. Elegant, lean, only moderately sweet, showing some complexity. Slight astringency on the finish, but perfumed, balanced and quite enjoyable, especially upon opening.
December 8, 2023 - A fine Sauternes, boasting incredibly well-defined notes of vanilla butterscotch and orchard fruits yet possessing good acidic lift. This keeps it from being heavy, but the overall package is still so painfully young. This is all botritiyzed spice, bruised orchard fruits and smoky minerality - there’s almost no tertiary development at all.
For that reason, this doesn’t rise to the level of being a great wine for me, lacking the sheer complexity, and I do not think it is ready to escape the dessert course. And the finish is a bit short. But it is a very good wine. Perhaps in (more) time.
December 3, 2023 - Sauternes Chinese Banquet Dinner: Light golden. No botrytis. Perfumed secondary aromas. Lighter weight but richer than the 1988. Still very elegant and like that wine, not that sweet. A little dirtiness at the end that mars the harmony of the wine, but this too is lovely.
December 3, 2023 - All Sauternes, All Night (R & G Lounge, SF): One of my wines of the night, along with the '04 Yquem and '89 Yquem. A bigger wine that I expect from Climens, with quite a powerful frame, packed densely with acid, spicy botrytis, flowers, burnt sugar, toffee and some orchard fruit. But still retains such a sense of elegance and harmony. This wine doesn't shout, but you listen when it speaks. Perhaps this is what the '01 will drink like in another 15 years? Still quite youthful and maybe not yet at peak.
December 3, 2023 - All-sauternes dinner; 12/2/2023-12/3/2023 (R&G Lounge, San Francisco): Incredibly youthful golden; aromatic, white flowers; balanced, elegant, incredibly well balanced, medium-plus acidity; long finish. Not quite as complex as the 88 Climens. 94
August 30, 2023 - Nose of orange peel, cinnamon and honey.
Ample mouth, with a very nice acidity which lengthens a very fine juice. There is of course the richness specific to Sauternes, but it is a wine that I would describe as a fine, there is a lot of fluidity in the mouth, with notes of candied oranges and saffron. This makes it a digestible and pleasant wine with a very good balance. Salivating finish on a saffron length.
Excellent Sauternes.
July 2, 2023 - Beautiful nose with flavors of honey, apricot , bruised peach and lychee. After a day, notes of caramel, coing and pear started to appear. Mouth is still fresh but lacks complexity. Additional notes of vanilla, mushroom and passion fruit. It’s too bad such beautiful flavors in such a short finish