2009 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir K&U Sonderedition Le Bon Climat

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 88.5 points

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  1/13/2017 - forceberry wrote: 86 Points

  13,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Deep, luminous, somewhat translucent ruby red color with slightly developed pomegranate red rim. Sweet and somewhat atypical nose with a pronounced note of honey reminding me more of botrytized dessert wines than Pinot Noir, followed by lighter aromas of dark cherries, some raspberry marmalade and a juicy hint of dark plummy fruits. Pretty ripe and fruit-driven nose with quite little of anything particularly typical of Pinot Noir here. The wine feels ripe, juicy and rather full-bodied on the palate with rich, round and mellow flavors of those slightly out-of-place botrytized characteristics like honey and dried peach, along with ripe flavots of black raspberries, some chocolate, a little bit of juicy dark cherries and a hint of cranberry sauce. Although the wine is moderately high in acidity, it still comes across as rather soft and round, thanks to its ripe, fruit-forward nature and very ripe and mellow tannins that really don't contribute to the structure nor to the texture. The finish is ripe, somewhat sweet and quite long with subtle tannic grip and fruity flavors of raspberries and strawberries, some peppery spice, a little bit of spicy Pinosity and a hint of spice.
  
  Overall this is a quite pure and fruit-forward, but also noticeably round, ripe and a bit too mellow Pinot Noir for my liking. However, what baffled me (and many more people in out Pinot Noir tasting) was that very distinctive note of honey and dried stone fruits, which gave the wine a very unique character, but even though this note was quite pleasant, it perhaps distracted more than contributed much to the whole. Overall a quite enjoyable effort, but I prefer my wines less sweetly-fruited and more savory and structured.

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