I read a lot about wine, and the one thing that consistently irritates me about so many reviews is the fawning, oh-my-god-this-wine-is-amazing accolades that many churn out.

The thing though is that, truly, there are many wines of the world which are just wines doing their thing – they’re just wine being wine.

They’re fine and dandy.  And that’s okay because, come on – not every wine can be a show stopping, benchmark wine of the world.  Not every wine is amazing – the vast majority are simply good or very good as long as they’re not flawed.  Full stop.

But then there are wines like this one – those produced by masters of the art of winemaking who allow the terroir to imprint the wine.  People who treat the earth and the vines with such respect and sustainable practices that the grapes are the leading characters and the winemakers are merely gently guiding the process from the sidelines.  And they’re not afraid to admit it – in fact, they embrace the role.

This is a stunning example of a benchmark white wine, from a famous piece of schist dominated dirt (planted since 1130 AD, see picture) which is now its own appellation, even though it’s only 13 hectares in size.  Nicholas Joly is the owner and winemaker, and his daughter Virginie whom I met in 2014 works alongside him in this capacity (see picture).

There is not much new I could tell you about the Jolys and their work – after all, he is an icon of hands off biodynamism, and the reason for the NNW (New Natural Movement).  But I can tell you this wine practically gave me whiplash, and sure made me sit up straight.

We opened it at 14 years old and did not decant it – we wanted to see how it would open up in the bottle over the evening.  We were unable to save any for the next few days to observe changes – we couldn’t stop ourselves and drank it in one sitting, even though Mr. Joly himself recommends enjoying his bottles over three days.  How anyone could wait so long to finish it is completely beyond me.

Deeply gold in colour, the aromas and palate were complex and powerful – carnation, spiced nutmeg and cinnamon, composted, super ripe yellow apple, fig, straw, and quince layered in over top salted sea caramel, walnut and Oloroso sherry.  The developed palate is rounded, full and waxy, supported by high acidity which means it can be held for many years to come.

Truly a work of art, this is a bottle to hold for another 5-7 years if you have some.  I am thrilled to say I have one more.  It’s going to take a lot for me to open it though.  That said, I am open to ideas.