2013 Donatsch Pinot Noir Réserve Privée

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 95.6 points

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  11/19/2023 - Cailles wrote: 95 Points

  No notes taken. This is an incredibly dense wine with some much stuffing, so much complexity and high precision. It is obviously still a baby and will at least need another 10 years to fully open up and reveal all it has in store. Still, already lots of fun to drink.

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  5/19/2023 - Cailles wrote: 96 Points

  13x Pinot Greatness: Tasted side by side with the Donatsch Unique 2013. After a few dormant years, the regular Unique 2013 (94pts) is again open for business. It’s layered, precise, elegant but still a bit young. The Privee (96pts) showed fantastic with more of everything, so much aromatic density, superb precision and a perfect balance. In the context of this larger tasting, one couldn’t spend enough time with it to experience it in its totality and in every detail. I suppose that once mature this could become a perfect wine.
  
  TN: Expressive nose with pure red berries and a core of darker red fruit, toasty and coffee notes, herbs, stems. Very inviting and the best nose of the day. Even better on the palate, wonderful satin-like tannins. Round and fresh, light and airy but with superb mid palate weight. So complex and round. Lots of wonderful aromas. A rainbow of fruit from red to dark, with time more and more herbs, a bit of spices, minerality, stems and on a finish full of coffee and red fruit, minerality. Ever so slightly changing and with an impeccable balance. Wow.
  
  Decanting: Decanted for roughly 30 minutes, then back in the bottle and consumed 2, 3hours later. Worked fine.

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  4/30/2023 - Collector1855 wrote: 95 Points

  During a Pinot blind tasting dinner. Also here dark fruit dominating, some coffee, a bit lactic on the palate. Dense, lots of material here, complex notes on the finish. A step up from the Unique. I think the ideal drinking window for this is 2028 onwards. Generous contribution by a participat as this is a limited auction bottle.

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  2/12/2023 - Cailles wrote: 98 Points

  Impressive lineup of five Pinots from five decades from Donatsch, showcasing why this winery is currently the brightest star of Swiss Pinot Noir. Spiger 1977 (89pts) and 1981 (93pts) were impressive, alive and kicking, but past peak. The sensational Spiger 1990 (96pts) was an astounding wine with so much substance and poise. The Spiger 2000 (96pts) was equally concentrated, complex and has lots of upside. The Unique Privée 2013 (300 bottles made) was the WOTN at 98pts: Still young, not yet fully open but with layers and layers of intricate and balanced aromas delivered in HD. This is a masterpiece and will only get better with time.
  
  TN: Although it’s still young this wine is slowly getting into it’s drinking window. Medium expressive, slightly closed nose with dark berries, toasty notes, some spices. Some red berries come forward too as the nose opens up with more time. On the palate this is so complex, layered with fine ripe red berries, some darker fruit notes, spices and toast, minerality. Superb precision. Fine, highly elegant tannins, medium to high, round acidity. Airy texture. Superb balance. This is an amazing wine that will continue to improve for at least two decades. Wow. Easily 97/98pts.

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  9/29/2019 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points

  This is a true unicorn wine. Only 300 bottles produced, a mere 30 bottles were auctioned off for USD 700-1000 a bottle (the rest remains with the family). I had this side by side with the regular Unique 2013, which is a great Pinot but this is simply on another level (eventhough both get the same 94 points today). This wine is currently in a sleepy phase (and should not be opened until 2030) but shows extremly dark and deep paired with Donatsch‘s signature elegance and purity. Very, very promising showing. No wonder it got so high praises (97 points from Parker‘s Reinhardt, 2x 20 points from local critics). This could become a benchmark setting Swiss wine on par with the best Burgundies (price wise it already is). 94 points today with lots of upside.
  
  TN: Intense and deep expression of pure blue fruit, red fruit, some dark berries, stems, cola, fresh earth, wet forest floor. Dense and dark. The purity, intensity and complexity are off the charts and the structural frame is impeccable with loads of ultra-fine tannins and a lot of perfect acidity which will allow for graceful ageing. But as mentioned above, this is only showing tiny bits of what it has in store. It is in lockdown and will need 10+ years of cellaring.
  
  Decanting: Minimum 8 to 10h in the decanter are needed. Unfortunately we didn‘t had the time to give it the proper decant.

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