2021 Domaine Naturaliste Chardonnay Flagship Artus

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 93 points

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  2/26/2024 - Tonyromolampkin Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Nose: funk, buttery, creamy, vanilla, spring flowers, floral bomb
  
  Palate: citrus (lemon, lime) , butter, vanilla, oak, nuts, honey, cream, white flowers, stone and minerals
  
  Finish: stone and minerals, short

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  11/4/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 Points

  The two other reviews on site are both fair takes on the wine, although one feels the wine isn't quite big enough and the other that it is a bit too big. Annoyingly, I think I am going to land in the middle.
  
  I am not a big new world Chardonnay drinker these days, though I have great affection for the grape. It has always been hard to find the interpretations that get things where I like them for this grape. In the 80's and 90's it was overblown fruit, too much oak, too little acid.
  
  Since then, the pendulum has swung to the point where my issue is that much as I enjoy grapefruit, in wine it tends to come with a twist of bitterness that I don't find attractive. Chardonnay's new world trend has been grapefruit uber alles and it might be ubering over your alles, but it is just getting up mine and browning me off.
  
  And so, I have started to develop a small obsession with finding a new world Chardonnay that gives me white peach, no grapefruit, minimal vanilla or other new oak distraction. I will be quite pleased if struck match is but a rumour. I don't even know if this is a valid quest, but I am stuck with it. Just as I need to match the right colour pegs with my laundry, once these things take hold the only way to avoid massive distraction and angst is to follow and fulfill.
  
  Colour is fairly well-developed green-gold, but bright.
  
  The nose develops over time open. At first it feels like my palate is in a game of grapefruit Pacman, with nougat, roasted nut and some caramel. Sigh. Over time, I find myself thinking that there might be white peach coming through as the more dominant fruit character, or is it a bit like watching a Peter Jackson movie, where you keep trying to persuade yourself that it might actually be ok if you just stick it out to the bitter end?
  
  On balance, this is a hell of a lot better than a Peter Jackson thing. I find the grapefruit aspect remains annoying, but I would say most normal people won't be troubled. The white peach is definitely there, and the texture is really quite attractive. I agree that there is a fair bit of battonage likely involved, but it works. The nuts and nougat are in good proportion to the fruit. The finish is long and there is no issue with intensity. I can see where the lowish acidity comment comes from, but I don't think it is to the point where the wine seems fat, or a bit flat and lacking life.
  
  This is a very good modern, new world Chardonnay. You'd have to be even whackier than me to be unhappy it; whether it wins your heart is another matter. Just as I finish this, Boz Scaggs' 'Jojo' comes on my stereo and that is pretty much the story.

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  9/2/2023 - KiVi Likes this wine:

  Clearly well put together with a luck of high quality oak. Not as mouth filling as I would have liked but very enjoyable all the same. The nose was very classy.

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  8/31/2023 - RandalWA wrote: 93 Points

  I'm all for oak in my Chardonnay, but this could possibly be a bit too far down that road. It's like liquid butterscotch on toast with smoke, opulent stone fruit & vanilla. Acidity just hangs in there to balance the texture, which is extremely full bodied and viscous. 40% new French oak with what must be judicious, almost daily lees stirring. Huge Chardonnay. Very well made wine but just not quite my style, a touch over the top.

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