Drinks like a big buttery Napa Chardonnay, think Lewis or something similar. Very good but not my style, rich and a bit flabby…rubber notes and buttered popcorn, jellybeans vanilla bean, just not enough acidity at all for me, still very tasty
No formal notes taken, so this is from memory. Gorgeous aromas of honey suckle and wildflowers. Big in the mouth. Flavors are nice but could have used a little more acidity and a little less wood.
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My white of the night! Golden color. The nose was so sexy on this wine! Rich candied Pineapple, honeysuckle, acacia and white florals, pine tar and some vanilla. On the palate this has tons of tropical fruits, pineapple, green guava, acacia, again with coniferous notes and some crushed stone. It really coats the mouth with a long finish! This is beautiful now and I'm sure it could handle some aging.
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Good but not really jazzing me this evening. Golden color. The nose is inviting with classic sweet corn, flowers and mild honey notes. Weight and texture are there but it has less flavor depth than I would expect from the nose. A touch bitter on the finish. It’s good but I had hoped for more. (88)
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Monthly Tasting Group HWS; Condrieu (By AH): Beautiful and complex bouquet with apricots, honey and caramel. Same impressions on the palate, beautiful acidity, some ginger, beautiful sweet touch and bitterness. Great wine.
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Pale yellow color. Aromatically this is predominantly stone fruits and Asian pear. This lacked the lanolin mouthfeel I frequently find with some Viognier with just enough acidity on the attack to keep this from leaning flabby. Primary flavor profile for me was limited to anise and a spicy butterscotch. Through the mid-palate this keeps the spiciness as the predominant flavor profile. This has an ok finish, but this never really evolves or penetrated my tasting with any nuance or finesse. This remained somewhat one-dimensional and never captivated me over the course of several glasses. Half the bottle to be consumed in day 2.
Day 2 there was a small expansion with honeysuckle, but this remained one dimensional without charm, verve, or character. No change in the overall score.
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This is drinking beautifully! The nose leaps from the glass to showcase smoky notes perfume, flowers, melon, and honeysuckle. Great right away, but I'd recommend 2-3 hours of air to let it develop weight and depth. With air, it becomes big, lush, and expansive in the mouth featuring rich and creamy textured citrus and tropical fruit flavors. The finish is long. If you have some now is a good time to indulge at least based on this experience.
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Good youthful viognier, rich, broad, floral, yogurty. Difficult to appreciate after champagne though as the style contrast a bit too much. B&J xmas party
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golden yellow, lots of clarity, silvery hue Nose: pineapple, green peach, brioche, acacia flowers, vanilla, mandarin orange, charcoal, flint, sea salt, oak Pal: pineapple, green peach, vanilla, brioche, mandarin orange, flint, sea salt, minerals, oak Feel: medium, full Finish: medium, long T8 (could be a 9)
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Another home run La Doriane. An expansive nose of peach, apricot, tangerine, orange blossom, honeysuckle, lychee fruit, cardamon, and yes, vanilla. An intense golden yellow that catches and invites the eye. Every element of the nose is precisely tracked on the palate. The cardamon carries along to interplay with the vanilla. The oh-so-long finish carries at least as long a it takes the cars to make a lap around the track (of the NASCAR championship race at Phoenix). Dare I use the expression, “an hedonistic wine”? A big wine but not one that tires the palate; deft, balanced and beautiful. 14.5% alc. While watching Ryan Blaney race his way to his first championship! 11.05.23. Highly Recommended.
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Aromas of honeysuckle, peach, melon, lemon peel and hazelnut. Peach, melon, wet stone, lemon peel and hazelnut on the palate. Very long, layered finish with excellent depth. Very well balanced. Paired beautifully with Coquilles Saint-Jacques.
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A reminder of how much serving temperature can affect taste. At first, served a bit warm, this tasted of nothing but vanilla oak. But with chilling the spice and apricot came through. That said, it still seemed to lack the verve of past bottles.
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Fatter than past bottles, and with a bit of butterscotch in there, which I'd rather not have. I still like the unctuous apricottiness of it all though.
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Hard for me to grade this one. It is a very good example of what it is. Aromatic nose - apricot and flowers . Medium to full bodied on the palate with a long finish . Like some others, I miss the acidity but I know Viognier is a low acid grape . Paired this with a dish with udon noodles and complex flavors such as ginger, soy , and vegetables . It did quite well.
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Wow! Knock your socks off glass full of perfumed and fragrant flowers. Intense aromas and concentrated viognier flavors on the extremely long finish. The only knock on this wine is that I really only wanted one glass of it because glass #2 started to turn my stomach. This is a wine to be enjoyed one glass at a time vs. consuming the entire bottle in one sitting. Nevertheless, my wife does not enjoy Condrieu, so I still consumed the whole bottle. Great wine in small doses!
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With the ABV of a warm-vintage Barolo and insufficient acidity, this is a wine that is just too alcoholic and heavy to be enjoyable. Exuberantly floral, over the top. Spice (star anise especially), apricot, and expensive oak. I’ve found it really hard to drink.
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This was singing last night - been a millions years since I had a Condrieu and this was top shelf. Only thing that was of was a quite present aftertaste of well licorice? I’m thinking it was the oak somehow - this will need a few years in the cellar - and I do mean just a few years. But then it will be rocking. Yes I’m a burgundy and Bordeaux man but this is a nice change
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WINE & SPIRITS TOP 100, SAN FRANCISCO (San Francisco, Ca.): Nose of melon, apricot, allspice, watermelon, rose petals, and oak, walnut, same on the palate, very fragrant, very floral, and very tasty, medium/big body, mouth filling fruit, wonderful change from red wine tonight, should age and hold for ten years, long, lovely finish and aftertaste.
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fragrant mixed tropical fruit on the nose rounded beautiful flavors on the palate surprisingly ready to drink given it's youth and continued evolvement during it's relatively brief life
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Concentrated flavors of apricot, preserved lemon, and honeysuckle, but this vintage has the acidity to keep everything from sinking into that abyss of old lady perfume that some vintages have had. Not cloying at all. In fact, exceptional.
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Tremendous nose, like being in a room filled with exotic perfume, white flowers & tropical fruits, so elegant in the mouth, almost feminine which is unlike its usual brash full on character
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Tasting Ground official tasting, 2020 Condrieu (Oinoscent): The grapes come from the top terroirs of Condrieu, vineyards on very steep terraces. 1ha Côte Chatillon, Condrieu (shale, limestone), 1ha Colombier, St Michel Sur Rhône (granite, sand) 1ha Volan St Pierre de Boeuf (granite with iron oxide) 0,5ha Coteau de Chéry, Condrieu The average age of vines is 35 years, yielding 39hl/ha. The wine is made exclusively in new oak for 12 months and then goes into malolactic fermentation. The wine then ages in new oak. The average annual production is 20,000 bottles. -//- The wine shows high intensity, heavily based in oak treatment, new oak notes, walnut, vanilla even caramel, brioche, the fruit is on the ripe to overripe side, apricot, melon, quince, sweet spices. In the palate, the wine shows full body, like Cuilleron’s les Chaillets tasted before, this is lighter in the palate, the high alcohol (14.50%) adds sweetness and warmth, almond, walnut, overripe fruit, peach, melon, vanilla and long finish This will require time to absorb everything and find balance, highly extrovert and to easy to impress. But elegant? nope
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The wine is clear, with pale gold color, and thick legs. On the nose the wine is clean, with medium plus primary aroma intensity of white tropical fruits, fresh green herbs, along with medium plus secondary aroma intensity of oak spices, and vanilla. On the palate the wine is dry, with medium plus acidity, medium body, medium plus alcohol, medium plus flavor intensity of oak spices, vanilla, fresh green herbs, white ripe fruits, lemon, lemon zest. The wine is of a very good quality, due to its complexity and length. It is still oak driven at time of tasting, with fruits hiding in the background, thus can benefit from further aging, in order for those fruits characteristics to come forward and for the oak characteristics to soft down a bit.
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5/5/2024 - Joelene wrote: 92 Points
Drinks like a big buttery Napa Chardonnay, think Lewis or something similar. Very good but not my style, rich and a bit flabby…rubber notes and buttered popcorn, jellybeans vanilla bean, just not enough acidity at all for me, still very tasty
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5/4/2024 - NoahCap wrote:
No formal notes taken, so this is from memory. Gorgeous aromas of honey suckle and wildflowers. Big in the mouth. Flavors are nice but could have used a little more acidity and a little less wood.
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4/28/2024 - fotomill Likes this wine: 93 Points
Concentration is there, oak touch is not prominent fortunately, 93 because there is no edge like floral notes.
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3/25/2024 - DevenStephens Likes this wine: 95 Points
Parents wedding anniversary 2024; 3/22/2024-3/25/2024: Parents anniversary supper, 8 courses, 7 wines.
Wine 3: Guigal Condrieu La Doriane 2020.
Paired with brown buttered scallops.
My white of the night! Golden color. The nose was so sexy on this wine! Rich candied Pineapple, honeysuckle, acacia and white florals, pine tar and some vanilla. On the palate this has tons of tropical fruits, pineapple, green guava, acacia, again with coniferous notes and some crushed stone. It really coats the mouth with a long finish! This is beautiful now and I'm sure it could handle some aging.
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3/17/2024 - WestfalenGG Likes this wine: 95 Points
What a wonderful wine! Golden color. Superbly balanced. Fresh, yet low on acidity. Taste of honey and a bit of oak.
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3/16/2024 - dbkitc wrote: 88 Points
Good but not really jazzing me this evening. Golden color. The nose is inviting with classic sweet corn, flowers and mild honey notes. Weight and texture are there but it has less flavor depth than I would expect from the nose. A touch bitter on the finish. It’s good but I had hoped for more. (88)
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3/13/2024 - Zweder Likes this wine: 94 Points
Monthly Tasting Group HWS; Condrieu (By AH): Beautiful and complex bouquet with apricots, honey and caramel. Same impressions on the palate, beautiful acidity, some ginger, beautiful sweet touch and bitterness. Great wine.
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2/10/2024 - COWineLover wrote: 89 Points
Pale yellow color. Aromatically this is predominantly stone fruits and Asian pear. This lacked the lanolin mouthfeel I frequently find with some Viognier with just enough acidity on the attack to keep this from leaning flabby. Primary flavor profile for me was limited to anise and a spicy butterscotch. Through the mid-palate this keeps the spiciness as the predominant flavor profile. This has an ok finish, but this never really evolves or penetrated my tasting with any nuance or finesse. This remained somewhat one-dimensional and never captivated me over the course of several glasses. Half the bottle to be consumed in day 2.
Day 2 there was a small expansion with honeysuckle, but this remained one dimensional without charm, verve, or character. No change in the overall score.
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12/25/2023 - LoireFan wrote: 91 Points
Too young.
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12/19/2023 - sfqwino Likes this wine: 93 Points
Absolutely delicious! Great texture, rich and unctuous. Floral and finishes long. Does not seem like a long ager but this is so good now why wait.
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12/17/2023 - Apollo5710 wrote: 96 Points
This is drinking beautifully! The nose leaps from the glass to showcase smoky notes perfume, flowers, melon, and honeysuckle. Great right away, but I'd recommend 2-3 hours of air to let it develop weight and depth. With air, it becomes big, lush, and expansive in the mouth featuring rich and creamy textured citrus and tropical fruit flavors. The finish is long. If you have some now is a good time to indulge at least based on this experience.
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12/16/2023 - peternelson Likes this wine: 92 Points
Good youthful viognier, rich, broad, floral, yogurty. Difficult to appreciate after champagne though as the style contrast a bit too much. B&J xmas party
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12/1/2023 - Frijole wrote:
golden yellow, lots of clarity, silvery hue
Nose: pineapple, green peach, brioche, acacia flowers, vanilla, mandarin orange, charcoal, flint, sea salt, oak
Pal: pineapple, green peach, vanilla, brioche, mandarin orange, flint, sea salt, minerals, oak
Feel: medium, full
Finish: medium, long
T8 (could be a 9)
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11/5/2023 - timewithwine Likes this wine:
Another home run La Doriane. An expansive nose of peach, apricot, tangerine, orange blossom, honeysuckle, lychee fruit, cardamon, and yes, vanilla. An intense golden yellow that catches and invites the eye. Every element of the nose is precisely tracked on the palate. The cardamon carries along to interplay with the vanilla. The oh-so-long finish carries at least as long a it takes the cars to make a lap around the track (of the NASCAR championship race at Phoenix). Dare I use the expression, “an hedonistic wine”? A big wine but not one that tires the palate; deft, balanced and beautiful. 14.5% alc. While watching Ryan Blaney race his way to his first championship! 11.05.23. Highly Recommended.
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10/29/2023 - hoservin Likes this wine: 94 Points
Aromas of honeysuckle, peach, melon, lemon peel and hazelnut. Peach, melon, wet stone, lemon peel and hazelnut on the palate. Very long, layered finish with excellent depth. Very well balanced. Paired beautifully with Coquilles Saint-Jacques.
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10/20/2023 - Rupert wrote:
A reminder of how much serving temperature can affect taste. At first, served a bit warm, this tasted of nothing but vanilla oak. But with chilling the spice and apricot came through. That said, it still seemed to lack the verve of past bottles.
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9/2/2023 - Rupert wrote:
Fatter than past bottles, and with a bit of butterscotch in there, which I'd rather not have. I still like the unctuous apricottiness of it all though.
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8/30/2023 - ta75 Likes this wine: 91 Points
91-92
Good but I've had better bottles. This one lacked a bit of balance, came off a bit sweet lacking acidity. Floral intensity and stone fruits.
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6/14/2023 - ta75 Likes this wine: 92 Points
Drank better than my last bottle about 6-7 months ago. Great wine, so floral and aromatic with structure and acid to back up the fruit and oak.
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4/28/2023 - fotomill Likes this wine: 93 Points
One of the best Viogniers. A little weaker, less characteristic than previous vintages, but more accessible. Less oaky, less bitter.
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4/20/2023 - jkvedar Likes this wine: 91 Points
Hard for me to grade this one. It is a very good example of what it is. Aromatic nose - apricot and flowers . Medium to full bodied on the palate with a long finish . Like some others, I miss the acidity but I know Viognier is a low acid grape . Paired this with a dish with udon noodles and complex flavors such as ginger, soy , and vegetables . It did quite well.
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4/16/2023 - Countless Likes this wine: 96 Points
A sublime version of this wine. Hits all the right notes.
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4/7/2023 - Rupert wrote:
Billowing apricot fragrance, floral and spicy - as exuberant as ever
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3/11/2023 - Francophile1 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Wow! Knock your socks off glass full of perfumed and fragrant flowers. Intense aromas and concentrated viognier flavors on the extremely long finish. The only knock on this wine is that I really only wanted one glass of it because glass #2 started to turn my stomach. This is a wine to be enjoyed one glass at a time vs. consuming the entire bottle in one sitting. Nevertheless, my wife does not enjoy Condrieu, so I still consumed the whole bottle. Great wine in small doses!
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1/13/2023 - Rupert wrote: 93 Points
Extravagantly spicy perfume, lush on the palate. This is a real exotic luxurious mouthful.
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12/23/2022 - pavese Does not like this wine: 87 Points
With the ABV of a warm-vintage Barolo and insufficient acidity, this is a wine that is just too alcoholic and heavy to be enjoyable. Exuberantly floral, over the top. Spice (star anise especially), apricot, and expensive oak. I’ve found it really hard to drink.
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10/17/2022 - Lord Rodney wrote: 93 Points
This was singing last night - been a millions years since I had a Condrieu and this was top shelf. Only thing that was of was a quite present aftertaste of well licorice? I’m thinking it was the oak somehow - this will need a few years in the cellar - and I do mean just a few years. But then it will be rocking. Yes I’m a burgundy and Bordeaux man but this is a nice change
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10/13/2022 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 95 Points
WINE & SPIRITS TOP 100, SAN FRANCISCO (San Francisco, Ca.): Nose of melon, apricot, allspice, watermelon, rose petals, and oak, walnut, same on the palate, very fragrant, very floral, and very tasty, medium/big body, mouth filling fruit, wonderful change from red wine tonight, should age and hold for ten years, long, lovely finish and aftertaste.
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10/12/2022 - bugdoced Likes this wine: 93 Points
fragrant mixed tropical fruit on the nose
rounded beautiful flavors on the palate
surprisingly ready to drink given it's youth and continued evolvement during it's relatively brief life
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9/15/2022 - richard.presser Likes this wine: 95 Points
Guigal La La New Release (2018) Dinner with Brett Crittenden (Prince Wine Store South Melbourne): Aged in 100% new oak.
Spectacular.
Fine, rich nose. Rich, complex, long, profound.
Shows none of the limiting lack of acid viognier struggles with. Deals effortlessly with the oak. Phenolics and other elements provide the backbone. This will carry age. A revelation for me.
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8/7/2022 - Neecies Likes this wine:
Concentrated flavors of apricot, preserved lemon, and honeysuckle, but this vintage has the acidity to keep everything from sinking into that abyss of old lady perfume that some vintages have had. Not cloying at all. In fact, exceptional.
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7/1/2022 - Rupert wrote: 94 Points
Extravagantly perfumed, with spice and flowers, voluptouous on the palate - honeysuckle and apricots. Gorgeous.
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7/1/2022 - Claret & CdP Gang Likes this wine: 93 Points
Tremendous nose, like being in a room filled with exotic perfume, white flowers & tropical fruits, so elegant in the mouth, almost feminine which is unlike its usual brash full on character
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5/11/2022 - kostaslonis wrote:
Tasting Ground official tasting, 2020 Condrieu (Oinoscent): The grapes come from the top terroirs of Condrieu, vineyards on very steep terraces. 1ha Côte Chatillon, Condrieu (shale, limestone),
1ha Colombier, St Michel Sur Rhône (granite, sand)
1ha Volan St Pierre de Boeuf (granite with iron oxide)
0,5ha Coteau de Chéry, Condrieu
The average age of vines is 35 years, yielding 39hl/ha. The wine is made exclusively in new oak for 12 months and then goes into malolactic fermentation. The wine then ages in new oak. The average annual production is 20,000 bottles.
-//-
The wine shows high intensity, heavily based in oak treatment, new oak notes, walnut, vanilla even caramel, brioche, the fruit is on the ripe to overripe side, apricot, melon, quince, sweet spices.
In the palate, the wine shows full body, like Cuilleron’s les Chaillets tasted before, this is lighter in the palate, the high alcohol (14.50%) adds sweetness and warmth, almond, walnut, overripe fruit, peach, melon, vanilla and long finish
This will require time to absorb everything and find balance, highly extrovert and to easy to impress. But elegant? nope
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5/11/2022 - Shloly wrote: 89 Points
The wine is clear, with pale gold color, and thick legs.
On the nose the wine is clean, with medium plus primary aroma intensity of white tropical fruits, fresh green herbs, along with medium plus secondary aroma intensity of oak spices, and vanilla.
On the palate the wine is dry, with medium plus acidity, medium body, medium plus alcohol, medium plus flavor intensity of oak spices, vanilla, fresh green herbs, white ripe fruits, lemon, lemon zest.
The wine is of a very good quality, due to its complexity and length. It is still oak driven at time of tasting, with fruits hiding in the background, thus can benefit from further aging, in order for those fruits characteristics to come forward and for the oak characteristics to soft down a bit.
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5/7/2022 - ta75 Likes this wine: 92 Points
nice wine, easy going, floral, minerality. serve a little more chilled than you would a burgundy.
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