Coutet 2019

Gorgeous nose full of exotic spices, candied fruit, orange, apricot and honeyed brioche. Lovely unctuous texture here, it's fat but smooth - like thick smooth fruity caramel, quite defined and straight but with a roundness and generosity with pineapple, mango, violet even giving an appealing florality, and these lovely almost bitter orange edges. It's still a bit young but with great vibrancy right now, acidity which gives energy and life all the way through. Lifted and bright.

Golden yellow in colour, concentrated and enticing. The focus is on texture and architecture rather than flavour on the first beats, but it opens to show enjoyable quince, lime, white flowers. Rich through the mid palate with welcome slate scrape and mandarin zest bitterness on the finish.

The 2019 Coutet has a very intense bouquet of wild honey, saffron, dried pineapple chunks and a touch of cold, wet stones, all imbued with palpable joie-de-vivre. The taut, fresh palate is underpinned by a silver bead of acidity (always one of this Barsac's leitmotifs), offering clementine, peach and nectarine toward the persistent finish. A joy.

A sweet, dense and rich white with oily character. Full and layered. Extremely long. Spicy. Very dense.

The 2019 Coutet is an attractive Barsac. Orange marmalade, burnt sugar and spice infuse the 2019 with notable depth to fill out its ample, richly textured frame. There's plenty of character, but I don't find this especially finessed.