3 | Wine | White, France, 2009

"A pretty, floral Riesling with apple blossom and lily notes accenting the quince, mandarin orange and Gala apple notes. Tangy and very thirst-quenching."

"A ripe, broad style, with salted butter and blanched almond notes leading the way, followed by candied lemon peel, shortbread and white peach notes. Stays fresh through the finish."-Robert Parker

"This delicate white, displays notes of orchard blossom, candied lemon zest and tangerine, with a minerally subnote that builds toward the finish. Shows good concentration in a dry and elegant package, with a long, finely textured finish."

"Like a mountain stream, this is pure and bracing. Lemon and green apple flavors, joined by accents of thyme and mineral, mingle as this resonates through the finish."

"Delivers an almost inordinate diversity of floral, herbal, citrus, and pit-fruit elements. ...with the bitterness of fruit pits, smoky pungency of red currant and crushed stone, as well as notes of shrimp shell reduction and iodine inflecting a long, bittersweet, yet at the same time vibrant, buoyant finish. This silken textured seducer should gain with time in bottle and be worth following for ten or a dozen years." 93-94+ pts.

"Tiny berry- and desiccated concentration rather than botrytis characterize even the 2009 Vouvray Moelleux Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1er Trie. This evinces an as yet unresolved tension between fresh citrus, chalk, and alkali on the one hand, and honey, caramel, and nut paste on the other. For all of its ripeness, there is a sense of textural firmness underlying the palate impression here. Marzipan, singed vanilla cookies, and suggestions of both peach and strawberry preserves enhance the wine’s confectionary aura, and despite its manifestly good strong acidity by vintage standards, the nearly 100 grams of residual sugar present here certainly result in a dominating youthful sweetness in its formidably long finish. If you want this to balance on its own (i.e. not in a dessert wine capacity) then I would be prepared to wait more than a decade, and the wine no doubt has at least three in it. Pinguet says this reminds him of the 1989 1er trie bottlings at the same stage."

"Fresh citrus and green apple scents are complicated by thyme, mint and mineral nuances. Racy and precise, with tangy lime and pink grapefruit flavors gripping the palate and picking up dusty talc and quinine character with air. Impressively pure wine with very good finishing lift and cut."