April 20, 2024 - Dinner at Tiny Pine Bistro (Carbondale, CO): This ranks up there with 2001 Yquem as one of the best dessert wines (still readily available on the market, I might add -- as there are plenty of small German bottlings that aren't) made in the last 40 years. This is basically what high-botrytis chenin should be. Textbook in every way, and just ridiculously stunning in its quality. Despite the maturity, this feels like it has decades still to go -- a result, obviously, of its being chock full of preserving acidity and residual sugar. A kaleidoscopic palate that never feels heavy for a second, though the concentration and complexity makes a little go a long way.
January 13, 2024 - Finally a great bottle of this, wafting if not rocketing from the glass with a complete, complex nose, filling the room with clover honey, acacia, mirabelle, almond, and cooked mushroom. What texture this shows in the mouth with acidity to match and aromas of youth balanced by those of maturity. Fabulous with cheese, and a fabulous example of why ever cellar should have some representation of the Loire.
December 2, 2023 - corked
September 9, 2023 - A Ledbury Dinner: Deep bronzed amber, almost a hint of copper. Marmalade and butterscotch nose. Similar on the palate, more rich than sweet and balanced by still significant acidity. Little change from a bottle twelve years ago. ***1/2
July 29, 2023 - A disappointingly simple bottle, ex winebid
February 25, 2023 - Dark rusty red! to brown color. Complex and super clean aromas of dried yellow fruits, honey and raisins. Extremely sweet and concentrated (390 g/l sugar), compact and undeveloped in the mouth. This wine will last for decades, despite the color. My first note on this 10-11 years ago has turned out to be totally wrong. This is, I guess, as good as sweet Chenin Blanc can be.
February 5, 2023 - Salil Bday
Just beyond incredible. Absurdly dark color, looks like oloroso sherry. Classic nose and palate. Rich, burnt sugar, soft apple, honey, burnt honey, pineapple upside-down cake, the tiniest bit of menthol, brown sugar, pear. Beautiful, delicious.
December 17, 2022 - Wines with porchetta (Chicago, IL): When I opened this, I thought I was safe from the TCA, but still felt that the bottle was somewhat flat. Well, a few hours later, the TCA was pretty obvious...
December 14, 2022 - A survey of Domaine Huet (Chicago, IL): Coat of arms label. Corked. Which was not easy to detect because of how much else was going on with this wine. The stripped palate made this a pretty obvious TCA call.
December 10, 2022 - Sadly, slightly corked - but the wine underneath is so obviously excellent, showing a melange of apricot, ripe pluot, cooked button mushroom, and clover honey. The 89 Cuvée Constance is texturally gorgeous too, supple, sweet but not cloying.