An extraordinary wine dances on your palate. Carefully choreographed, it arouses your senses to savor the aroma, the mouthfeel, the taste — unlocking the graceful steps from vine to barrel, bottle to glass, and ultimately, to your soul.
Many wine enthusiasts and professionals will recall a seminal bottle of wine that all at once changed how they viewed, tasted, and enjoyed wine. Steven Spurrier and Jancis Robinson, sommeliers and enthusiasts, no one is immune to this phenomenon. I certainly wasn’t.
Countless sips of wine — mostly reds have crossed my palate, stimulated my senses, and roused a passionate study of the fruit of the vine–but not one bottle in 25+ years propelled me like a rogue popped champagne cork into a much deeper relationship with wine. It was always a passion, a joy, a love, but it didn’t sink down into my soul. Until recently…
I opened a bottle of DeLille Cellars Chaleur Blanc from our Wine Folly wine club shipment and breathed in the aroma of peaches, apricots, honeysuckle, soft oak, strawberries, Meyer lemon, and hay made of a blend of both Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes. The aroma was literally, figuratively, and Intellectually intoxicating. The taste was as exceptional as the aroma. The mouthfeel was silky smooth and crisp at the same time.
How was that possible? I wanted to fully understand the who, what, where, when, and why of this wine. That first sip invited me into a world of wine that I once thought was unavailable to a mere enthusiast like myself. Never had I ever connected so intimately with a glass of wine, especially not a white.
The Chaleur Blanc, while produced and bottled in Washington, delivered the feel and essence of a luscious white out of Bordeaux. In Bordeaux, French winemakers often blend a Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon grapes and a little Muscadelle for their region’s dry whites. DeLille in Washington blends their Chaleur Blanc Bordeaux style with Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon to create a beautifully balanced wine, AND I LOVE IT.
My Rating:
