2007 Carte D'Or
258 cases produced 60% Semillon, 40% Sauvignon Blanc
The nose is amazingly complex and intense: flowers, fruits (apple, melon, citrus), herbs, minerals. Lean yet richly flavored and persistent on the palate, with a creamy mouth-feel. Strong minerality and excellent acidity make this wine an elegant dinner accompaniment.
Allocation pre-release club 24 / public allocation 12.
Awards
Excellent - Frederic Koeppel 04.03.08
LL called the Renaissance Carte d’Or 2007 “a gift to vegetarians,” and indeed the wine’s striking fruity, herbal nature would make it appropriate for all sorts of vegetable-based dishes, including risottos (which don’t have to be made with chicken broth) and pastas. The wine is a blend of 60 percent semillon grapes and 40 percent sauvignon blanc that ages six months in neutral German oak ovals. It opens with herbal-grassy scents with touches of apples and figs and smoky dried pear. Carte d’Or ‘07 is very dry, spare, clean, crisp and tart without being citrusy (read: no grapefruit), and it brings up hints of celery, ginger and melon, a bit of riesling-like honeyed peach, a wafting of jasmine. Don’t mistake this for an aperitif wine; it’s too serious, too thoughtful for that blithe purpose. Drink through the end of 2009. Excellent. About $20.