Community Tasting Note

Greg Munyard Likes this wine:

Sunday, October 27, 2019 - Goodness me - this extraordinary wine is even better than before! Our generous hosts (thanks, Patrick) served a 750 ml bottle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream, which it complemented beautifully - but just trivialised. So compelling was it that It drew one person to say that you could drink it with anything. A powerful yet exquisite and delicious masterpiece, it changed the course of a fantastic lunch for 4, it was such an attention-grabbing tour de force. Even my wife, who normally doesn't drink a lot of stickies, was captivated - arm out-stretched at every reload.

First impressions are of lusciously sweet yet exquisitely complex flavours, of remarkable concentration. Lip-lickingly beautiful; descriptors include dried apricots, honey, mango, pineapple, orange blossom, a beautiful hint of muskiness, and lots more. Nice as they are, however, they simply don't do the combination justice.

Only Yquem has the remarkable and distinctive flavour combination (plus or minus in particular vintages) that brings so much admiration. (It was even obvious in a remarkable bottle of the 1900 that our same host kindly provided last year). And only Yquem has that perfect palate 'attack', characterised here with a nice musky thread, and good palate grip, tying together the rich and luscious sweetness. I'm surprised more people don't comment on this lift, which I assume has come from deft oak handling. It's in every Yquem but in the 01 is in perfect balance, along with the perfect fruit-acid balance of the great 2001 vintage.

As if that weren't enough, then there's the after-taste. (The word 'finish' is inadequate to describe it as it implies something much shorter). You'll find yourself looking for new words of approval many minutes after each taste, such is the persistence of the flavours. Put it all together and you have an experience - rightly revered as one the world's greatest wines and, for me, the greatest dessert wine I have ever drunk.

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