🎄 Advent Halfy Calendar Day 13 🎄
🎅 Santa says “I was going to make a joke about this wine but I got a slap from Mrs Claus 👋”
📝 I say if you like dessert wines this is a fabulous nicely balanced drop for the money I’d sure have again with rich cheeses 😍
⏩ 🍾 Mrs E got Duval Leoroy Brut NV
📍A Sticky End Noble Sauvignon Blanc 2016
🏵 89 points
🍇 Sauvignon Blanc
🍷 Rich golden yellow
👃 Peach & pineapple driven tropical fruits
👄 Med+ body of sweet syrupy and sticky rich chewy honey & sugared tropical fruits w/ a green toffee apple caramel undertone, apricot jam & a citrus spank
🎯 Long long long sweet gooey creamy buttery honeyed tropical fruit fest w/ apricot, apple & citrus — 7 years ago
2004 Vintage in screw top. Lots of sediment but the fruit is still the forefront. Best wine of the night against the Booker, Massena, and Duval. We miss Matt Garretson. — 8 years ago
Very nice, refreshing rose, with acidic notes. Super nice for the apéritif in this hot weather, at the swimming pool. — 8 years ago
We tasted a beautiful trifecta of wines tonight with our new awesome friends Tom & Lori Duval. Lori is our new interior decorator. Thanks David for the awesome introduction!!
2012 Beau Vigne Estate, 2012 Carter Cellars To Kalon & 2014 Fair Main. The Beau Vigne Estate was definitely the WOTN. Incredibly lush., well rounded and an opulent finish that went on forever. Damn that stuff is good!!!!!!! Everything that I love in a Cabernet! Beautiful example of a premiere Napa cab which has an awesome QPR!!! 👍😍😍👍💯.
Ed Snider is at the top of his game. Bravo my friend!!! @Ed snider — 8 years ago


Perfectly matched with Will Studd selected Duval — 9 years ago
From Magnum at Cynthia's ceremony. — 9 years ago

Crisp and delicious. Apples and honey. champagne at epicure restaurant in Paris — 8 years ago
Dark black red in appearance. Long legs. Spice, petrol blackberries on the nose. Smokey dark berries on the palate. Great wine to go with a big char grilled steak. — 8 years ago
Where do I start with this wine? Perhaps what I didn't like about it. Palate seems unresolved as of now and it didn't deliver as much satisfaction as the nose, but that's just nitpicking. Also a touch too oxidative - hints of sherry notes. However, in a way, this adds complexity to what was already a rich, layered array of aromas. Tasting the Sapience, I think of a warm mille feuille, with baked apples and spices in one layer, salted caramel with nuts in another, chamomile cream with fresh mandarin pieces in the last. This had complexity of the highest order and probably the best champagne I've tasted this year.
Notes: Better to serve it in a bigger format glass. Like Bouchard and Selosse, bubbles dissipates quickly here. The ample use of oak and richness of the wine does make it somewhat table-like. Also, CJ noted that's this could have pulled off as a Selosse Millesime, which I have yet to taste. Mixed info about the wine so will list them all.
From FORCEBERRY on Cellartracker:
This is a brainchild of Benoît Marguet: the world's first "prestige cuvée" by Champagne small growers. Despite labeled under Marguet's name, this wine is not made with Marguet grapes; instead the grapes come from organic producer Georges Laval, who supplied Pienot Meunier (2/3 of the wine) and biodynamic producer David Léclapart, who supplied Chardonnay (1/3 of the wine), all grapes from minimum 1er Cru-level vineyards. The wine is vinified by Benoît Maguet and Hervé Jestin, a man best known as the cellar master of Duval-leroy. The wine is fermented and aged in old barriques for 6 months, after which the wine is bottled and left to age in Marguet's cellars for a minimum of 5 years. This wine is disgorged in September 2012 with a dosage of 3 g/l.
From Planetwine:
Sapience is a collaboration between Benoit Marguet, Benoit Lahaye, Vincent Laval, and David Leclapart. The concept is to craft a Champagne using extreme biodynamic methods. This rendition of Sapience comprises Chardonnay from David Leclapart, and Pinot Meunier from Vincent Laval. The next version will have Pinot Noir from Benoit Lahaye. The wine is made in the cellar of Benoit Marguet, who is one of the most passionate biodynamic winemakers we've encountered. The base wine spends two years aging in Bordeaux barrels before the second fermentation in bottle. More Chardy in blend.
From Pillariwine:
Benoit Marguet partnered with Herve Jestin to create this wine, the first ever certified organic prestige Champagne blended from across the region. They release the same wine with two different labels. One is Sapience/Marguet the other one is Champagne Jestin. Grapes are from the fellows of Hervé Jestin, Vincent Laval(Cumières, PN&PM, Biologic) and David Leclappart(Trépail, CH, Biodynamie). — 9 years ago

Such a lovely BdB. — 9 years ago
Honeymoon greeting bubbles — 6 years ago
This Syrah is made in conjunction with Consultant, John Duval of Penfolds fame. John has also been making his Duval private label wines since he departed Penfolds back in Barossa. Gorgeous nose of sweet dark currants, dark moist soils, licorice, smoke, grilled meats, violets and fresh florals. The palate is rich, round, thick, sexy and elegant. Blackberries, liqueured, dark cherries, cherries, strawberries, lots blue fruits, smoke, grilled meats, cinnamon, vanilla, rich scorched earth, loamy soils, touch of crushed dry rocks, liquid violets, dark fresh flowers and full, mellow acidity. The structure, length, tension and balance are drop dead gorgeous. The finish is thick, full and flat out mouthwatering and jaw dropping gorgeously sexy. Photos of the Long Shadows logo, one of their vineyards and beautiful tasting room. — 8 years ago


MUCH different from the Duval in that this is heavy, big and chewy. Delicious — 9 years ago
Delicious. — 9 years ago
Insane for the price. Morning juice. — 9 years ago
Jon Ebsworth
Lovely southern Rhône white blend from the Barossa at Heckfield Place, The Sun House restaurant - partnered both fish and meat dishes well. — 6 years ago