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.
Although not Bonny Doon, I recently drank a wine made with 100% roussanne for the first time and adored it. It seemed to bring out more of the terroir we have talked about before, than some of the other white wine varietals I have tried. It struck me as a grape that makes a very frenchie wine. 🙂
Interesting. Was it, indeed, a French wine? I think it’s somewhat uncommon for the French to make a still wine that’s all roussanne (there is a sparkling St-Péray, which I have never had but would love to try).
The 100% roussanne stunned me at first, as I know it to usually be blended with other varietals, but I really fell for it. It is made by a small operation in Oregon, actually. The winery is J. Scott Cellars, and the winemaker, Jonathan Oberlander, also produces a lovely pinot noir (naturally, as it is Oregon and all).
Thanks for following up. I will look for the J. Scott. Cheers, Meg