There’s a bright floral and peachy fruit to this wine, but you have to look for it a bit in the nose around thin grapefruit minerality and an earthy, petrichor abrasion mellow and comforting. It’s not grassy, wet newsprint and ink are subliminal, but old-world cellar-floor nuances spring out calm and collected, poised and focused on balancing this wine to perfection without headline-grabbing fruit. The texture is pure finesse, encapsulating everything you dream for in a crisp white–WITHOUT it being too crisp or even gregarious. I’m pulling this out of the bottle at a nice 55°-60°–probably 20 degrees warmer than most will drink it. It just WORKS this way, and FWIW: you’re drinking your whites ENTIRELY too cold.
Delicious light honey/honeysuckle on the palate, steely acidity integrated into the body on levels DEFINING top-notch versions of this variety. There’s an oiliness to the fruit ethereal enough to be at a near-psychological level, plumping the mouth-feel and invigorating the floral and herbaceous hints. The fruit maintains an under-ripe strawberry and nectarine clarity, peach-pit tannins at the ready.
The wines from this producer continue to amaze and impress. Given their boutique quality and dedication to typicity, they should be DOUBLE the price, but for now–and this is GOOD for you–they are down there in a range with supermarket entry-level stuff. You would do well to pay attention. This kid is a silent genius, and making EPIC wines.
2019 METRICK Albarino C5 Vyd Los Olivos District SYV Santa Barbara Co. 12.0
Stephen McConnell 