2004 - Pouilly-Fume Silex, Domaine Didier Dagueneau

Yellow-gold. Exotic, leesy toast, butter and smoke atop rich peach, yellow apple and tangerine aromas. Broad, dense and chewy, with deep, powerful apricot, pear and tangerine flavors and a smoky, buttery quality that persists through the finish. Mineral notes sneak in on the very back, along with building acidity, giving this a taut, citrussy quality. Richer and deeper than the Pur Sang but I prefer the previous wine's clarity today.

Ripe fruit, exceptional flint-rich soils, and lees and barrel work mark the Dagueneau 2004 Blanc Fume de Pouilly Silex, in considerable contrast with its little sibling. A nose of white peach, currant, honeydew melon, lavender, and citrus zest leads to a luscious, polished, silken-textured palate with subtle herbal pungency and lees character inflecting the wine’s rich base of fruit, but only the merest hint of resinous oak. Long and full in its finish, this displays a slightly sweet-sour personality with green tomato, gooseberry and citrus rind notes playing against honeyed melon and luscious white peach. Various importers, including Elite Wines, Lorton, VA; tel. (703) 339 8150 and Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191