Freddy R. Troya

8.9

Armand de Brignac “Demi-Sec” – NV
Champagne, France 🇫🇷

Overview
A multi-vintage Demi-Sec Champagne crafted from estate-owned vineyards in the Montagne de Reims. Blend composition; Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier, with a notably higher dosage designed to emphasize sweetness and roundness over tension and dryness.

Aromas & Flavors
Ripe stone fruit, candied citrus peel, honey, and baked apple, with soft pastry notes and a distinctly sweet aromatic profile.

Mouthfeel
Broad and creamy, with gentle mousse and low perceived acidity. The sweetness dominates the palate, creating a rich but heavy impression rather than freshness or precision.

Food Pairings
Fruit-based desserts, pastries, or blue cheese. Best suited to pairing with sweetness rather than as an aperitif.

Verdict
Well made and technically correct, but stylistically not for me. The sweetness outweighs balance and vibrancy, making it less appealing compared to classic Brut expressions.

Did You Know?
Demi-Sec Champagne contains significantly higher residual sugar than Brut styles and was historically popular for dessert pairings and celebratory occasions.

🍷 Personal Pick Highlight
For sweet wine cravings, I would rather reach for Tokaji or Sauternes, where sweetness is matched with greater complexity and structure. — 7 days ago

Vanessa

9.0

I love orange wine. 🧡 Better explained, I love wine made with white grapes that received extended skin contact (maceration) during the fermentation process. This extended skin contact deepens the color of the resulting wine and enhances the wine’s texture, tannins, and aromatics.  Generally, the longer the maceration period, the greater its impact on the resulting wine. 👍

By contrast, a more typical white winemaking process would involve crushing and pressing the grapes off their skins, removing the skins and seeds, prior to fermentation. 👀

This technique of fermenting white wines “on the skins” derives from an ancient and traditional Georgian 🇬🇪 winemaking process of sealing whole, crushed grapes in a clay vessel – called a qvevri – that is buried underground to be kept cool for the period of fermentation, storage, and aging.  When white grapes are used in this process, the result is an amber wine. 🙌🙌

The orange winemaking technique has now been adopted throughout the world, but some of my favorite examples come from Northeast Italy and Slovenia (neighboring regions).  🇮🇹 🇸🇮

My first experience with orange wine was in 2019 – clearly, I’m still a baby on this journey – dining at Restaurant Montcalm in Paris.  I was captivated by the color, aromatics, and incredible food-pairing abilities of the orange wine we tasted with our first course, which was made from the Loire grape Melon de Bourgogne.

Whether it’s enjoyed as a solo sipper or paired with food, I so appreciate the versatility of these wines and am taking much pleasure expanding my orange-wine horizons. 😆😆😆

Here we have a Slovenian orange wine made from a blend of Ribolla Gialla (Rebula), Malvasia, Sauvignonasse, each of which were fermented and handled separately in different vessels and with use of a range of malolactic fermentation, lending richness and complexity.

This wine offers aromas and flavors of baked pear and apple 🍎 🍐 , lemon pith, orange peel, citrus and cherry blossom 🌸 , and wet slate. It has a rich texture and cream secondary notes. It’s lovely and hits the spot on this gorgeous spring evening. 🎯

Krasno, Orange, Vintage 2018, ABV 13%, from Brda, Slovenia.  $19.00 at Lowry Hill Liquors. — 5 years ago

with Deked1

Kenta Hayashi

9.3

Better than his Corton and only a shade under Sauzets Montrachet. Bottle was open for a hour and reduction had blown away. Fruit was clean but surprisingly tropical with banana peel and I dare say dried pineapple chips. I was expecting citrus notes but that was secondary to the tropical notes that was detected. If I had to dig for criticism then I wished for greater intensity and length. — 7 years ago

Brandi Bratek

9.3

Love this! Buy and drink if you can find it. — a year ago

Shona Claremont

9.0

Slightly Sweeter than many rose wines but not sickly. Fruity and perfect for a summer lunch — 2 years ago

Vanessa

9.1

Study sesh!!!! Wine of the night is a GG (grosses gewachs) Riesling wine from Pfalz, Germany. 🇩🇪
.
.
👁This wine has a medium lemon hue. This wine is clear with subtle effervescence.
.
.
👃 The nose is clean. This wine has pronounced intensity of developing aromas including tart apple, apricot, lemon, lime, pineapple, gooseberry, elderflower, honeysuckle, honey, and wet stone.
.
.
👄 This wine is dry and medium bodied. The acidity is high. The alcohol is medium. This wine has pronounced intensity of flavors including tart green apple, lemon peel, lime, apricot, passion fruit, gooseberry, wet stone, and honeysuckle. The finish is medium(+).
.
.
Quality of this wine is very good. It is very good because it has strong balance of acidity and fruit characteristics. It has a good length and intensity of aromas. It could be improved with greater complexity and tertiary flavor development that would increase the honeyed and dried fruit flavor potential. This wine may be consumed now, but will benefit from more time in the bottle.
.
.
Dr. Von Bassermann-Jordan. Riesling. Jesuitengarten. VDP. GG. Pfalz. Germany. Vintage 2014. ABV 13%. — 5 years ago

with Deked1

Bob McDonald

8.9

Green Apple aromas and flavours. Oak fairly blended and hidden at 9 years of age. An interesting wine - drink the remaining 2 bottles in the next 3 years. Refreshing / expecting more complexity. Tasted another one 21 weeks later on 2nd July 2019 with similar notes - mouldy apples and woodsy notes. The maturation in wood masks the varietal characters of the Chenin to an extent. — 7 years ago

Carmen

9.0

I love this orange wine: lychee, apricot, rose water, honey, saffron, and ginger. I could drink this all day. — a year ago

John Dalrymple

10

Delicious. Andy's uncles vinyard — 4 years ago

Severn G

9.4

Nose has summer roses, cut cherries, mashed raspberry, stainless steel, minor flint, blood orange peel and dried rose; additional development with each swirl & sniff.

Palate has dried raspberry, dried orange peel, warm green herbs, dehydrated peach, mild tannins (wow), lengthy finish with minor dehydrated tart cherry. Such an experience with a barrel aged rosé!

Future bottles on 2018 should be held until 2026+

Grenache 45% / Mourvèdre 30% / Cinsaut 5% / 20% Field Blend including Syrah, Castet, Manosquin, Carignan & various Muscatel

Bottle No. 057148 | Lot 0603
Decanted 4h. I will endeavour to follow the development of this bottle over the coming days.

24 Hour Update: Fresh raspberry most prominent today on the nose. Palate is showing raspberry jam with minor leather notes.

48 Hour Update: Fresh & dried raspberry, fresh rose, bowl of fresh cherries, moist cedar plank and dry sandstone on the nose. Palate is showing dried strawberry, dried raspberry, minor green herbs, dried orange peel and minor dried cherry. This bottle looks to finally unknitting towards its greater self.

72 Hour Update: See 48 Hour notes, plateaued to a good spot still. Enough wine left for one more update.

192 Hour Update: Nose has cranberry jelly, ripe raspberry, warmed cherries, fresh cranberry and dried orange peel. Palate has raspberry juice, freshly juiced cherry, cranberry juice cut with water, dried orange and minor dried herbs. Still doing great, on day eight. Final update. — 6 years ago