Saturday, June 03, 2006

Chateau de Fesles, Bonnezeaux, 1997

Two Botrytis-affected Loire wines in as many weeks! Life does not get much better than that. Chateau de Fesles makes a marvelous sweet wine, which we had it with an assortment of fruit pies.

Made entirely of Chenin Blanc, this wine is highly concentrated, but the balance of relatively high acidity keeps it fresh and lively. I last had this wine a couple of years ago, and it has become noticeably darker during this time. Just in case you wondering about its condition, it was stored in a wine refrigerator at a constant 55 degrees (12.77 degrees Celsius). There is some taste of apple, honey, and a wild flower perfume to this wine, and it was very far from fading. They say that you can easily keep this wine for 20 years and it just grows in complexity.

It is absolutely delightful, but, sadly, this was my last bottle of this precious liquid. Although this wine is hard to find and pretty expensive ($35 or so for a half bottle), I can think of no dessert wine that I have enjoyed more than this one. Outstanding!

I wish I had been able to taste it next to the to this wine:
Domaine de Baumard, Quarts de Chaumes, 2001.

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