Several decades in to the ongoing, evolving project that is Bonny Doon Vineyard, it looks they may finally be arriving at the most interesting place yet - and ironically, it's an arrival that sort of predates the winery's founding. By that I mean that they're now trying to produce wine the way you would have done it a hundred years ago in France, except presumably with a few newfangled tricks such as refrigeration and proper hygiene.
This wine is one of the first Demeter-certified biodynamic wines they've grown, and the complexity of it suggests (to me, at least) that they might well be onto something. This is a far cry from the weirdly plush, microbubbled oddities they've been crapping out for a while now; instead, what you get here is a beautifully light-colored wine with a floral nose that's oddly like what I imagine Portuguese laundry detergent might smell like: rose petals and generic "clean" with an edge of cucumber.
In the mouth, this is fatter than you'd expect, with a finish that tapers off quickly to reveal a note of crushed seashells and faded lemon rind. Before it goes, it's a sort of dilute orange blossom honey note you've got along with, well, a sort of drying minerality. It's fairly distinctly itself, whatever that is, and as such it gets two big thumbs up from this drinker. I only wish I had a plate of fresh oysters to accompany it.
This wine is one of the first Demeter-certified biodynamic wines they've grown, and the complexity of it suggests (to me, at least) that they might well be onto something. This is a far cry from the weirdly plush, microbubbled oddities they've been crapping out for a while now; instead, what you get here is a beautifully light-colored wine with a floral nose that's oddly like what I imagine Portuguese laundry detergent might smell like: rose petals and generic "clean" with an edge of cucumber.
In the mouth, this is fatter than you'd expect, with a finish that tapers off quickly to reveal a note of crushed seashells and faded lemon rind. Before it goes, it's a sort of dilute orange blossom honey note you've got along with, well, a sort of drying minerality. It's fairly distinctly itself, whatever that is, and as such it gets two big thumbs up from this drinker. I only wish I had a plate of fresh oysters to accompany it.
Price: US $20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
At first I thought it was some weird NZ sauv blanc--the citrus is there, but where's the passionfruit and the grass? And what's with the viscosity?
And then I found (like you did!) that it has a nice long temporal arrangement of flavors--a white wine not for sipping, but for contemplating in a light, daydreamy sort of way, on a warm and not-too-humid July evening.
But nothing too serious.
The wine was pleasant. It has a light taste at first, hits a high citrus note and finshes off strong but nicely. A good solid wine with little complexity other than its solid character. Maybe a bit overpriced. And I'm not sure I'd want to serve it to a group of discriminating wine fans as it is fairly straightforward.
October, 2008 Wine Snaffler