Domaine de la Denante Les Maillettes Saint-Veran 2014
Colour: Pale straw
Nose: Honey, peach, melon, stone, grass, white flower, light citrus, touch of oak.
Palate: Dry, medium+ body, medium acidity. Melon, citrus, mineral, honey.
Finish: Long finish, crushed stone, salt, faint nuts.
Score: 77+/100
First time having a wine from Saint-Veran, and it was a pleasant surprise. The wine throughout gives me a very rounded impression.
The nose was youthful, but rather complex, showing various concentrated stone fruits and touch of floral and grassiness, alongside a touch of oak.
It feels very rounded on the palate, but falls short on complexity, wouldn’t describe it as elegant either, just rather simple. Followed by a mineral driven finish with a touch of warm nuttiness in the very end.
Even though on the back label it says “Drink by 2020”, I would say this wine will definitely evolve with 1-2 more years of age. Drinking well now despite falling short on the palate, would hold.
I brought this wine to a blind tasting, since one of my whisky friend said him and his wife doesn’t enjoy chardonnay, and I went on a mission to find one that they will enjoy. I assumed he didn’t enjoy the new world, bold style, buttery Sonoma/Napa chard. This wine was a great success, it was a lot more to his liking and it feels good to re-introduce someone to a grape.