Recommendation: An OUTSTANDING Chenin Blanc at a VERY GOOD price.
Winery/Producer: Domaine du Pas Saint Martin, France.
Grape Variety: Chenin Blanc.
Geographic Region, Appellation: Coteaux Du Layon, France.
Vintage: 2010
Price: $18.00 (with a 20% discount)
Purchased From: The Caviste Wine Shop; Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Paired With: Apple crisp and whipped cream desert.
Tasting:
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He said: Served chilled. Dark oat straw color. Very ripe apple, fresh apricot and honeysuckle blossom aromas. Creamy nut and apple taste that’s not sweet (and, actually has quite a bit of crisp dryness) but carries through a VERY long sweet, honey like, finish. PERFECT wine with the apple desert and I really liked the mineral hints at mid-palate. We don’t usually like wines that have sweet tastes in them, but we LOVED this one. I’d say it was an OUTSTANDING Chenin Blanc at a VERY GOOD price.
She said: The dark yellow color of the wine was echoed by the dark yellow of the apple crisp. Additional echo was the sweetness of the two, a perfect match. The biggest problem was there is not enough!
Comments: (May 4, 2018) We reviewed this wine and vintage in 2014, but it was like a different wine now (even paired with the identical dessert), so we’re giving it another brief review:
Chilled before drinking. Obscure, very, very, very dark golden color. Ripe cooked apple and sweet honey aromas. Syrupy full body with a baked apple taste and more than hints of harsh bitter flavors. Medium acidity and a long sweet finish. “Not bad” paired with the apple crisp, but the bitterness really killed it. We both really really, liked this wine in 2014, but in 2018 we would say it was just “not bad”…at best. This bottle has been in our cooler for at least two years, but the extra age on it was not beneficial. Great wine, but we simply kept it to long and it was nothing like the delicious bottle we had in 2014…it lost freshness and the many layers of fruit flavors….and I knew it the second we poured it into the glass and saw the dark murky color!!!
Alcohol: 13%