Florescent straw with definite turbidity. Warm leather, ripe banana, pear and summer squash in the rich nose, a huge–almost buttery–nose, flush and full, instantly screaming Viognier: and a big one. Lavish and decadent: petrichor and furniture-shop providing the complex earthiness while dusty wilted floral coats the fruit.
I actually opened this bottle without checking if it was the Chard or the Viognier, but the impressions of the latter are as decisive as they are delicious. As massive and ripe as the bouquet is, the mouth-feel takes a turn on entry, dashing visions of slutty grandeur. Peppery acid hits hard, chewable-Vit-C injecting shards of bright being all around the concentration. Still, it’s a heady swallow, cramming an eye-rolling amount of ABSOLUTE FLAVOR into a package honestly feeling quite low-alc. The pepper-burn is not heat, but acid which quickly morphs to gritty wet gravel, and the bitter ache of tannin modifies unctuous tropical into manageable *thin-ness*, re-affirming my guess at well under 14-oh. A careful–but young–oak programme is obvious, polishing and expanding sultry notes all across the palate. The finish a cat’s-tongue sandpaper, abrasive and lovely in one long, drawn-out, (glorious) eternity.
This is a MASSIVE white wine, robust and delirious with sweet, mineral-tinged attack guaranteed to polish with a few years under its belt. If there ever was a poster-child for “Viognier is the red-wine-drinker’s white”, this is it. If you ever wanted to expand the horizons of your *oak & butter Chard* friends into real wine: this might work. It’s a monster, but remanding typicity into potent veracity. If this isn’t sold out; If you could manage to keep your hands off whatever bottles procured: a decade would be the deciding point.
2020 DUSTY NABOR ‘The Florist’ VG Ballard Cyn AVA Santa Ynez Valley California 13.0
Stephen McConnell 