Chateau Doisy Daene L'Extravagant Sauternes (375ML half-bottle) 2009
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 55% Sauvignon, 45% Semillon
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
This is rich and concentrated, with crème brûlée and apple crumble on the nose and palate. Full-bodied and very sweet. Thick and powerful. Layered and massive.
Barrel Sample: 95-98 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium gold colored, the 2009 L'Extravagant drifts sensuously from the glass with evolving notions of burnt sugar, apple pie, crème caramel and praline plus hints of honey-coated walnuts and powdered ginger. Very sweet, rich, full-on unctuous and densely laden in the mouth, the palate possesses almost electric freshness supporting layer after layer of dried fruit and nut notions, finishing very long. It won’t cellar for as long as some of the 2009s, but this sure is delicious right now.
Other Vintages
2003-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Sweet and unctuous but delightfully charming, the finest Sauternes typically express flavors of exotic dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, dried citrus peel, honey or ginger and a zesty beam of acidity.
Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle are the grapes of Sauternes. But Sémillon's susceptibility to the requisite noble rot makes it the main variety and contributor to what makes Sauternes so unique. As a result, most Sauternes estates are planted to about 80% Sémillon. Sauvignon is prized for its balancing acidity and Muscadelle adds aromatic complexity to the blend with Sémillon.
Botrytis cinerea or “noble rot” is a fungus that grows on grapes only in specific conditions and its onset is crucial to the development of the most stunning of sweet wines.
In the fall, evening mists develop along the Garonne River, and settle into the small Sauternes district, creeping into the vineyards and sitting low until late morning. The next day, the sun has a chance to burn the moisture away, drying the grapes and concentrating their sugars and phenolic qualities. What distinguishes a fine Sauternes from a normal one is the producer’s willingness to wait and tend to the delicate botrytis-infected grapes through the end of the season.