Bonny Doon Vineyard
Le Vol des Anges
2006
Current price: about $30
Gold, liquid gold. Unctuous swirled, it fills my nose with pear and apricot. Once inside, there's more apricot, ripe peaches—really ripe—a tinge of almond, maybe even a little mint or something herbal, but with depth and gravitas. Honeyed and flowery, but with a beautiful, bright zing that keeps it juicy. The finish is seemingly everlasting.
This wine is 100% roussanne, the white Rhône grape used in Hermitage and Châteauneuf du Pape. It's a fickle and finicky grape, prone to disease, but valued for its full, sensuous aromas and notes of honey and ripe stone fruits. Here, as a dessert wine from botrytised grapes, the flavors are concentrated and intense, powerful but dulcet and seductive.
I can hear them singing, still.
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