Community Tasting Notes 20

• Brucie69 Likes this wine: 90 points

  November 25, 2022 - Pours medium gold. Indicating sone maturity but a little less dark than expected given it’s age.
  
  A fairly intense nose of honey and slightly musky honeydew melon.
  
  The palate is drier than the nose suggests. Again honey and melon on the palate, with slightly unripe peach. Flowers and a hit of citric acidity dominate a fairly long finish.
  
  At first I thought it was a little past it’s best but it settled down and while there’s high acidity it’s still balanced by the fruit intensity. However the acidity spikes through the fruit a little bit, so I would drink now and over the next year or so as the acidity will take over fairly soon as the fruit fades.

  Comment

• mflesh wrote:

  February 7, 2022 - Venus is always a Roussanne dominant wine containing some parts of Viognier. This was a 97/3 combination in this vintage. I wasn't able to experience this wine in its youth but I have experienced a more recent vintage of Venus now reflected to an older vintage with a little more maturity on it. Nose of Meyer lemon, oregano, kiwi and kumquat. Entry is not as acidic as I recall from the recent vintage of this wine. Supple and mouth coating. Honeyed amber, lemon creme brulee, a dash of herbal character, and dried to a slightly stone ground finish with building acidity and a touch of white pepper spice, and a touch of browned butter. By itself you would have guessed that this would have been a pushover if food was thrown into the equation. But, this was served with a spicy barramundi filet and it rose to the challenge. The finish became much more present and flexed when it was needed! Overall this was a really nice wine. Great by itself but complemented a nice spicy fish filet. If you're holding on to these, it's time to start drinking on these. But this has definitely reached the pop and pour phase. This wine has excellent bones, so I would dare say that this would hold another 5-7 years QUITE easily. Another impeccably well made wine from Donelan. Should I expect anything less?

  Comment

• JWH6 Likes this wine: 91 points

  December 20, 2021 - The last time we opened a bottle of the 2012 vintage was 2014. I was a bit disappointed and hoped aging would bring the wine to life and it has, flavors have concentrated, this wine is aging beautifully.

  Comment

• prasm Likes this wine: 91 points

  May 2, 2020 - Pop and pour, consumed over 2 hours. Nose: Medium intensity, lemon, green apple, licorice, and wet stone. Palate: Medium-full bodied, pear and green apple attack, solid acidic back-bone drives a nice mid-palate lift, buttery notes in the back-end leave a creamy mouth-feel sensation. Finish: Medium length, 30-45 seconds, dominated by pear, green apple and licorice.

  Comment

• PANYC Likes this wine: 91 points

  February 22, 2017 - Drinking well right now with more secondary flavors slight honey, white peach, glycerol character with a nice round finish. Goes down way too easy!

  Comment

Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2012
• Type White
• Producer Donelan
• Varietal White Rhone Blend
• Designation Vénus
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Sonoma County
• Appellation Sonoma County

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 2 (1%)
• In Cellars 50 (24%)
• Consumed 155 (75%)

Food Pairing

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