September 29, 2021 - Hey now... OK! 14 years in the box. Hard not to dig Chidaine wines. Not a bit of added color here. Looks like last year's vintage. Muted nose, but explosive apricot, orange peel, and honeyed almonds in the mouth. There is certainly some sweetness here that tastes almost botrytised, but with a gorgeous core of searing acidity that makes chenins so amazing and age-worthy. Medium long finish. This is drinking beautifully now but thinning out some on the back end and a hint of oxidation. Would drink these up. With lemony herb scallop pasta, super, just super!
September 17, 2021 - Had with dinner tonite at CKH with the Kindlers. The nose is a lovely cornucopia of white flowers, apricot and honey. Medium, fairly lean, and a bit sweeter up front than I anticipated, but a very dry, mineral-laden finish. A true demi sec wine. Excellent acidity and minerality but a bit short. Very nice wine, drinking quite nicely. Went great with my ceviche.
July 14, 2020 - A Lovely Outdoor Tasting Session with a Bastille Day Nod (Industrial Eats, Buellton, CA): From a well-stored magnum, generously shared to give our tasting a Bastille Day flair. Monitored over the course of the evening. Certainly showed at its best with air and as it rose in temperature, but nonetheless I have to say I found it quite one-dimensional, with sweet white peach and floral notes dominating. Lacked sufficient complexity to hold my interest, though did complement a curry reasonably well.
April 10, 2019 - Monthly Tasting Group HWS #138; Loire white (By RvD): Beautiful and complex bouquet with minerals, honey, apricots, licorice and some medicine. On the palate complex as well, very tasty, a bit fat, good acidity and some pleasant sweetness. Beautiful and intense wine.
February 14, 2018 - Picking up considerable gravitas. Tropical fruit completely subsumed, now all river stones, tannin, wool. Energetic acid keeps this moving. Lots of life left.
December 18, 2017 - Drank from magnum. Still very good. All the good stuff you expect from a gracefully aging Chenin Blanc from the Loire.
November 10, 2017 - Sweet fruit on the nose, with plenty of minerality and some smoke. Juicy and quite sweet on the palate, with quite some tannins too. A very obvious and understated wine.
April 7, 2016 - Took a few minutes after opening to flesh out. Getting an aged edge to it. Not as dense in the palate as a Huet would be
February 10, 2016 - Secondary characteristics now, with a pine/resin sense on the nose, also classic woolly and cold cream/lanolin notes. The wine shows good palate presence and although feels lush and full, is well balanced. It is interesting how now that the stone fruit is mostly gone from the nose and palate, the lush character on the palate is more a textural quality than than in is about taste. I like where this wine is going...
December 2, 2015 - Realizing more and more that I don't really like these with a lot of age, as they get sweeter and for me, fatter in a way I don't like as much as in their youth. This came off too sweet plus the wool/wax/oxidized thing...oh well. drink, live and learn