December 31, 2019 - This was starting to show a little maturity since the last time I opened a bottle of this. While there is a depth that belies richness and weight it's light-bodied with high acidity. A lovely alternative to Sauternes and should pair beautifully with anything that Sauternes would. The acidity, body, and glycerine all leave me believing that this is a wine that will last for decades more.
November 23, 2017 - Open 24+ hours ago...A deep golden yellow in the glass. Beautiful scents of lifted floral notes, candied ginger, and honey. The acidity is ripping through all the sugar tonight...once again, the acidity was much less pronounced the first night. Notes of camomile, honey, kiwi, and honeydew mellon linger on the palate. This is just brilliant...and still leads me to think that it needs more time to show all of the complexity that can come with age. A brilliant wine...I'm so glad to have more bottles of this to check in over time.
August 24, 2016 - Drank at 67
A slight sweetness to the nose and palate. Lot's of complexity with mango and peach. Quite light. Nice.
August 22, 2016 - disappointing. But have no benchmark, so maybe I just don't like this style/type/terroir??
January 27, 2015 - A sweet Jurancon white made by the Loire Sauvignon Blanc legend, Didier Dagueneau. 100% biodynamically farmed Petit Manseng.
Deep and obviously quite developed bronze color with almost reddish mahogany hue. Very big, open and distinctive nose with fascinating, haunting aromas of golden raisins, darker-toned fruit aromas almost reminiscent of dried dark cherries, some tangerine, a little bit of candied rhubarb and a hint of wildhoney. The wine is very sweet yet incredibly intense and racy with bracing acidity. The body feels remarkably light despite the sweetness, basically just because of the acidity. There are waxy, powerful flavors of leather, honey, some buttery tones, a little bit of sappy grassy character, a hint of sweet apple jam and a touch of kumquats, passion fruits and other exotic fruits. The finish is tangy, bright and noticeably sweet with piercing acidity and incredibly powerful, intense flavors of lemony citrus fruits, tart green apples, some tangerine, a little bit of nectarine, a hint of leather and a touch of golden raisins. The aftertaste is sweet, but not sticky at all, thanks to the bracing, mouthwatering acidity.
A ridiculously concentrated, powerful and immensely racy Jurancon sticky. Even though Petit Mansengs tend to show incredibly high acidity levels, making them perfect wines for making sweet wines, the intensity here is on a next level altogether. This is a powerhouse without peers. The color promised wine that was aged beyond its years, but on the palate it is evident that the wine is mere baby, capable of aging decades more. Although a stunner now, the wine will need years and years more before its bracing acidity and sappy green tones start to get integrated with the fruit. Rather expensive at 100€, but the wine manages to deliver.
November 9, 2013 - An amazing array of complex layers of tropical fruits ranging from mandarins , sweet pears,honey dew,white nectarines and momo peaches etc etc. All nice stewed and boiled down to a wonderful balanced and lovely expression of honeyed pleasure. Sweet yet refreshing.
October 23, 2013 - Non-FIGSA Lunch (Absinthe, Boat Quay, Singapore): A very good sweet wine indeed, but not something to rave about - at least not at the moment. It had a lovely nose, with layers of honey and caramel aromas, poached pears and ciderish apples, sweet spice and some pungent wilting flower scents at the edges of the bouquet. Quite a beautiful nose actually. However, while the palate was impressive, I thought it somehow lacked some of the charm of the nose. I could not quite put my finger on it. This had about everything you would ask for in a sweet wine. There was a rich depth to it, a nice mid-toned sweetness, along with a juicy purity to its flavours of green apples, then more savoury undernotes of earth, figs and sultanas, with preserved kumquats and lemons on the mid palate. The finish had a floral tone overlaid on a malty, caramelly base that reminded me of Pei Pa Ko - a Chinese herbal, loquat and malt sugar mixture that I used to take when I was young. Pretty nice complexity and quite impeccable balance throughout - I suspect that there is actually more sugar on this than the palate perceives, a testament to the great amount of acidity that has been very nicely integrated into the wine. Somehow though, this seemed rather less than the sum of its parts - it could be perhaps it is in a rather awkward stage at the moment. This certainly has a lot going for it though - it would be interesting to try in say 5-6 years time to gauge where it is, and I suspect it has the structure and balance to go on developing in the bottle for a long, long time after that.
September 22, 2013 - This was the first sweet wine I'd had and I really liked it...which was a bit of a surprise. It has a never ending finish and wonderful acidity!
September 21, 2013 - Color: Golden yellow
Smell: Scents of baked pears, apples, honey, camomile, and other floral notes that are hard to identify
Taste: This is like an avalanche of flavors hitting your palate for well over a minute. Honey, yellow apple, white rasins, kumkuat, gala apple, Asian pear, white plum, nectarine, peach, the bevy of stone and tropical fruits is simply amazing.
Overall: Outstanding Plus. This medium-full bodied sweet wine has blistering acidity, vibrant fruit, and is starting to gain a little weight with age on the palate. With the acidity and the purity of the fruit I could see this wine lasting 50+ years or more...conservatively. It really does show it's best after it has been open for 15+ hours. If you can open it the day before you want it...for now, that would be best.
April 20, 2013 - Another wonderful bottle that reminds me of how young this wine is...and how amazing it is.