August 31, 2022 - Sonoma County Tasting @ Grand Cru. Honeyed/honeysuckle nose with the slightest hint of botyris. Rich, ripe, nectarines, oak and malolactic fermentation apparent. Fairly generic profile.
February 22, 2022 - Color: hazy medium gold
Nose: lemon and peteichor. Roasted hazelnut. Pollen. Yellow roses
Palate: high acidity and medium-full body. This has a clear salty character, along with hints of malolactic and just sharp lemon and lemon oil
Finish: medium
Very good, very salty. This is calling for seafood. It has I think a few more years to go but I'll never know, this was my last bottle
November 6, 2021 - November 2021 Trip to Sonoma: Much richer/riper nose than the 2018 Skycrest we had immediately before it. Stone fruit/nectarine, some red apple. Hazelnut, some moderate oak. A pretty powerful chardonnay, but it's still balanced by plenty of acid.
A fun comparison with the Under the Wire Chuy we had earlier. Both had an intense, ripe chardonnay character but with plenty of structure to back it up. Excellent.
January 3, 2021 - Another excellent bottle. Pop and pour over the course of a couple of hours. Drinking very well.
December 7, 2020 - Drank without decanting throughout the night. Excellent bottle. Drinking really well right now.
March 24, 2019 - Dream Big - Discover California Wine Tasting (Stockholm, Gamla Riksarkivet (old government archives building) March 2019): Lovely hybrid between apple lemony crisp chardonnay expression and hazelnut, creamy luxuriously oaked chardonnay. Highly recommended and quite a big step up from the normal Sonoma county chardonnay from the same producer.
December 29, 2018 - Really nice young Chardonnay. Crisp personality with cool orchard fruit and plenty of minerality. Very typical Lioco style with elegance and raciness.
October 23, 2018 - Heavy fruit; A bit green on finish; Long
October 23, 2018 - at tasting room.
rich golden color. Nose lemon and rocks, with some beeswax. Palate creamy lemon, a bit austere. 90 pts
May 29, 2018 - At home in Sonoma. Final bottle popped to celebrate and close the trip on a high note. Drank over several hours from bottle with lots of air time.
Appearance is clear, medium intensity, yellow lemon colour. Legs.
Nose is clean, medium+ intensity, with aromas of sweet citrus lemon, honeyed pear, chalky stones minerality, saline minerality. Developing.
On the palate, dry, high acidity, medium+ alcohol (13.6%), medium body. Medium+ flavour intensity, with flavours of honeyed pear, citrus lemon curd, golden apples, chalky stones minerality, saline minerality. Long finish.
Very good quality. Better than the 2015 Failla Chuy Chardonnay version, with a touch more fruit and minerality.
Just thinking aloud: how much better this would be with just a slight smidgen of oak.? Isn't it a bit cruel to deprive this great Chardonnay juice a chance at greater glory? Don't get me wrong though, this is still mighty appealing and I like it.