1991 Gitton Père et Fils Pouilly-Fumé Clos Joanne D'Orion

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 95 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View forceberry's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/4/2019 - forceberry wrote: 95 Points

  13% alcohol.
  
  Moderately deep golden yellow with a luminous bronze core. At first the nose felt somewhat dull and stuffy with some aged bottle stink, but opened up to reveal rich, somewhat sweet and almost dessert wine-like aromas of honey, dried apricots, some mushroomy tones, a little bit of toasty and slightly nutty complexity, light umami notes of dashi, sweet hints of mirabelle plusm and orange marmalade and a fragrant touch of saffron. The wine is dry, cocnentrated and moderately full-bodied on the palate with rich and quite concentrated flavors of pineapple and nectarine, some dried exotic fruits, a little bit of earthy, mushroomy character, light notes of orange marmalade, a hint of steely minerality and a touch of saffron. The high acidity keeps the wine very balanced despite its richness. The finish is dry, mineral and very focused with bold flavors of apricots, dried stone fruits, some stony minerality, a little bit of tangy green apple, a hint of apple peel and a touch of chalky bitterness.
  
  A very rich, concentrated and surprisingly youthful effort for a +25 yo Sauvignon Blanc - even more so for a wine from the middling 1991 vintage. Overall the wine feels so rich and unctuous I suspect there must be some botrytis influence here - in a vertical tasting of Clos Joanne d'Orion 1980-2015 this wine stood out as not only stylistically very different, but also probably the most impressive effort of them all. The wine feels dry and certainly isn't a dessert wine, but with its mushroomy tones and notes of saffron and orange marmalade it reminds me so much of sweet botrytized wines with some age, it is hard for me to believe such richness could be attained without any botrytis. Whatever the case, this is a remarkable powerhouse of a Pouilly-Fumé that is still going strong and perhaps will even continue to develop from here. Highly recommended.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.