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 | 2018 Dominus - Napa Valley | € 265,00 (€ 320,65) |
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IN DE PERS 100 James Suckling - jamessuckling.com This is incredible on the nose, offering hot stones, blackcurrants, iodine and wet earth. Full-bodied with a tight center palate, then it opens with a tannin structure that is weightless and spreads across the palate. Totally integrated on the palate. This is a magic-carpet wine. Really incredible. One of the reference points for the vintage. Drinkable now and please try a bottle, but it’s one for the cellar. 100 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com 97 James Molesworth - winespectator.com (Maart 2021) This is tightly packed, with sleek, pure, driven notes of cassis, plum reduction and blackberry puree allied to an iron spine, while subtle alder, juniper, sweet bay leaf and tobacco notes peek in throughout. Very fine-grained, but impressively sturdy in feel, with a long, lingering note of iron piercing the finish. For the cellar. Best from 2024 through 2040. #1 Wine Spectator Top 100 Most Exciting Wines from 2021 Wine is a long game. It often takes a generation or more to learn the vagaries of a vineyard site. It takes a decade for changes in farming and vinification to show themselves in the end wine. Even the most experienced winemakers need more time to achieve their goals. Dominus Estate in Napa Valley’s Yountville AVA (American Viticultural Area) is a prime example. Christian Moueix got his first taste of California while studying at the University of California, Davis, in the late 1960s. He returned to his native Bordeaux, working with his father, Jean-Pierre, in the family business, which included a burgeoning négociant operation and a cluster of properties they owned and managed. Today, the roster of Moueix’s Bordeaux interests is an all-star lineup: châteaus such as Trotanoy, La Fleur-Pétrus and Hosanna in Pomerol and Bélair Monange in Saint Emilion. His career in Bordeaux included the introduction of green harvesting (dropping fruit to reduce yields and increase quality), a technique that was initially met with derision by many of his fellow vignerons but which today is de rigueur in nearly every major winegrowing region. All of this, including a lengthy stewardship of famed estate Pétrus, took Moueix time. Over the years, Moueix returned often to California, drawn by the allure of grapegrowing and winemaking that could be done without the constraints of France’s formalized AOC system. In 1982, he became a partner in Napanook Vineyard, which became the foundation for the debut of Dominus Estate the following year. In 1995, he bought out his partners to become the sole owner. Moueix brought Bordeaux techniques to Dominus, along with its winemaking philosophy. Over time, he learned that some things between the two regions correlated, while others didn’t. Moueix wanted to make a Napa Cabernet without irrigation, as is the law in Bordeaux. The idea is to force the vine roots to grow deeper in search of moisture and, most importantly, to conserve water. “That’s the first step of sustainability,” said Moueix in 2019, when presenting his 2010 Dominus to a full house of New York Wine Experience attendees. With Napa now facing a severe and yearslong drought, Dominus’ vineyard is humming along as a finely tuned machine while other sites struggle to maintain a healthy balance between crop load, vine health and economic viability. Moueix’s decision to dry farm, a pledge he made from the beginning of Dominus, may prove to be his most prescient choice. As for the ideas that didn’t work out, Moueix admits he came to Dominus with a Merlot-first approach, a rubric born of his success in Pomerol. But time, and a willingness to adapt in pursuit of excellence, led Moueix to shift away from the variety at Dominus; today, there is no Merlot in the vineyard. The final blend of Dominus is typically at least 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Working with winemaker Tod Mostero, Moueix’s career hits another high point with this 2018 bottling, from another drought year. While there was a water deficit, the rain that did fall came at the right times, including a rainy winter in 2017 that allowed the soil to replenish itself heading into the 2018 growing season. “The 2018 season saw warm but very steady temperatures, without heat spikes,” says Mostero. “The ripening was even, there was no sunburn and no dehydration. There was no stress, no rush to do anything, no emergency work.” The evenness of the season shows in the 2018 Dominus, which captures the essence of the vintage perfectly, with vivid and dense yet restrained fruit carried by evident yet fine-grained and well-integrated structure. The wine brims with a deep, warm loamy edge and is backed by cast iron accents on the finish—a compelling display of great terroir. It’s the result of Moueix’s more than 50 vintages of experience on two continents, producing wines from differing terroirs. It’s a wine that comes from taking time, and a wine that will require time in the cellar. It’s a benchmark for the region and the vintage. Congratulations to Christian Moueix and his team for producing the Dominus Estate Napa Valley 2018, Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year for 2021. 99+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown – robertparker.com (Februari 2021) Very deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Dominus slowly emerges from the glass with profound notes of blackcurrant cordial, ripe black plums, boysenberries and Black Forest cake with hints of violets, star anise, cracked black pepper, raspberry leaves and pencil lead, plus a touch of garrigue. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers impactful black fruit layers, creating a beguiling sense of richness that is beautifully countered by invigorating freshness and great poise, framed by super ripe, plush tannins and beautiful tension, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note and, finally, lots of mineral sparks. For all that it is at the moment, one cannot help but feel that this 2018 is holding something back. Give it a good five years in bottle, at least, and then get set for what I suspect will be a mind-blowing transformation over the next 30 years+. Drink 2026-2056. "This is an example of a cool ripening vintage," Dominus's technical director, Tod Mostero, said. "It was a late season—everything was late from budbreak onward. We started harvesting on October 1st, then we got about an inch of rain, so we stopped, then we started again on the 9th and continued to the 15th." Proprietor Christian Moueix added, "We thought the elements of the 2018 vintage were very refined, and we wanted to play on that in the wine. It was the wines with a lot of delicacy and precision that went into the Dominus blend this year." The grace, purity and precision of this 2018 Dominus is absolutely captivating right now. And yet, poised on the brink of perfection, its promise of something more with time in bottle is at the heart of its allure. Embrace this wine for the very fact that it doesn't give you everything up front and all at once. 98 Antonio Galloni – vinous.com (Januari 2022) The 2018 Dominus has really shut down over the last year. I underestimated its imposing structure and density, both of which are on fully display today. The 2018 is a potent Dominus endowed with superb depth and tons of vertical explosive energy allied to a feeling of elegance that becomes increasingly apparent over time. Dark fruit, spice and a whole range of earthy, savory notes add layers of complexity. Superb. Drink 2028-2043. 97 Antonio Galloni – vinous.com (Januari 2021) The 2018 Dominus is wild and exotic from the first taste. Lifted aromatics make a strong opening impression. There is something exuberant about the 2018 that is hard to describe. The 2018 is not a huge Dominus, nor is it massively structured, but the intensity of the flavors is remarkable just the same. Dark raspberry, spice, leather and cedar are some of the many notes that open over time. Drink 2026-2043. DominusDe architecten van het befaamde Tate Modern in London en het Olympisch stadion in Beijing, Jacques Herzog en Pierre de Meuron, hadden eerder al het indrukwekkende Dominus Estate gebouwd in Yountville, Napa Valley. De kwaliteit van de geproduceerde wijnen overtreft de nochtans zo grote lof aan dit toonbeeld van hedendaagse architectuur. De bouwheer, Christian Moueix, vertaalt het minimalisme in zijn werkwijze; los van al te modieuze stijlvereisten moet de wijn de essentiële kwaliteit van het fruit weergeven. Dominus is een opvallend karaktervolle en krachtige bewaarwijn. Hij onderscheidt zich door een harmonieus evenwicht tussen finesse, levendig fruit en subtiele tannine. Christian Moueix richtte Dominus Estate op in Yountville in 1981. De befaamde wijngaard Napanook leverde reeds grote Cabernet Sauvignon sinds de jaren 1940 en 1950 en is de bakermat van de huidige Napa Valley. In 1838 plantte George Yount (vandaar de naam Yountville) er de eerste wijnstokken van de streek. MoueixChristian Moueix is net zoals zijn legendarische vader, Jean-Pierre Moueix, vereenzelvigd met Pomerol. Na zijn studies aan UC Davis eind de jaren 1960, vervoegde hij de Ets. Jean-Pierre Moueix waarvan hij de leiding nam. Zijn zoon Edouard staat nu aan zijn zijde. Hij bestuurt een indrukwekkend imperium dat ondermeer La Fleur Pétrus, Trotanoy en Hosanna omvat in Pomerol, Bélair Monange in Saint Emilion en Dominus in Napa Valley. In 2008 werd hij “Decanter Man of the Year”. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||