LOVE dipping into the Alder Springs stuff, and Donald Patz & Francois Villard are doing God’s work here with their two Rhone offerings. Pale legal-pad in the glass, it offers up a crisp nose still crammed with ripe citrus and rich floral. There’s a nutty, figgy over-lay to the golden-delicious and prickly-pear fruit, laying down herbaceous notes stopping just short of “grassy”. It’s a full, rich, round bouquet, offset with rusty pangs.

Tasting it also crams tons of flavor into your mouth–but in a package feeling fairly low-alc. We’re all used to giant, sumptuous Viogniers aiming a the red-wine and oak & butter Chard crowd, and finding one mired in clean, pale, simplistic varietal effervescence is a joy. Light and delicate, it manages a concentration rather stunning to behold. Green-woody notes apply abrasive texture and complicated bitter to the yellowed-lily and apricot flushness: a welcome angst massaging acid into all the right places. It finishes sweet and rich–no toasty indications yet on this incredibly young bottle. Soft tannins fly perfectly into the balance, and this is DEFINITELY one to cellar and watch. Quite possibly an ageless wine. Lose it in the cellar for a decade.

2020 TERMINIM WINE Viognier Alder Springs Vyd Mendocino Co. 12.5

https://terminimwines.com/