The Best Wine I Ever Tasted...1995 Muscadet

I could not resist the bottle. A 1995 Muscadet for sale today. It was one of the best wine choices I have ever made as this bottle is one of the finest white wines I have ever tasted - and it cost $15.99.

• 1995 Muscadet, Cuvee Vieilles Vignes, Chateau de l’Aiguillette, eleve sur lie

A wine name that deserves a line to itself to contemplate the incredible achievement of producers Patrice and Vincent Gregorie. This is an extraordinary bottle that will be intensely ignored by the wine media because it does not cut the profile they are looking for, but this wine is everything I look for in a white wine. Unbelievably fresh for an eleven-year-old wine, this is a wine at the peak of perfection. It is worth noting that most of the white wines getting big points today will fall apart by their fifth birthday.

Only a faint hint of older gold shines in the brilliant fresh straw yellow color. On the nose it is expansive yet firm, showing dense mineral highlights over fresh honeysuckle and red apples with cinnamon. Rich, yet zesty and alive on the palate with a finish that evolves into layer after layer of complexity for those paying attention.

No, its not the best wine I ever tasted, but it is almost perfect and is certainly the best dry white wine I have tasted in the last several years. Congratulations to Portland Oregon’s Casa Bruno for having the courage to import such a gem.

Comments

[Gene]

I opened this wine for New Year's Eve (2008) and it was EXTRAORDINARY. Blew everyone way. Thirteen years old and still lively and youthful and vibrant. I had no idea that muscadet could age this gracefully. Of note, I also opened a 1997 Puligny Montrachet and it was good, but tired and well past its prime. Go figure!