Fairly deep golden–owing of course to the 5 years of age… Round and rich in the nose, thick ripe apple and polished vegetal: a cleaner, more robust bouquet on a Sauv-Blanc I DARE you to find. Distinct pear and heady Crenshaw flow effortlessly out, presenting a luxurious bottle which was both inexpensive and rather typicitous on release. But here we have glorious white wine, polished and reduced quite extravagantly.
Tasting it would woo even the most cautious fan of the variety. The amount of toasty, burnished fruit it expresses into a palate coating the sides of the mouth with sharp acid is a yin-yang movement nearly impossible to describe. Sugary richness developed from age clings solidly to still-impressive structure, sharp citrus and kiwi clamoring for attention above the elegance.
So many of these wines I open I want to share with you so desperately–outliers and oddities, perhaps assumed past-prime or from strange regions–to watch your face, your reaction as you absorb the flat-out GOODNESS of it. I don’t care WHAT white-grape flag you sail under, this is a phenomenal wine: proving lots of things while probably proving nothing. So many black-and-white things you read about wines from newly-made scholars and rubber-stamp authorities, and the REAL-wine-world isn’t having ANY of it. This is a prime example. A stupidly delicious wine, probably with another half-decade or more to go. Not reflecting ANY of your knee-jerk *safe* descriptors for the variety, and taking 5 years in the cellar in stride. One of the best whites I’ve had this year.
2016 DANCING CROW VINEYARDS Sauvignon Blanc Lake County 12.3
Stephen McConnell 