2010 | DeLille Cellars | Chaleur Estate Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc leads the way with aromas of toasted almonds, sweet straw, cardamom and other baking spices. Reminiscent of vanilla cream, guava, Meyer's lemon, pears and toasty oak tones, this wine delivers a supple, mouthwatering texture lingering on the palate long after the final sip. Superb balance, elegance, and length all contribute to a wine of timeless grace.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: DeLille's 2010 Chaleur Estate Blanc – a blend of Sauvignon with 23% Semillon from four manifestly superbly well-managed sites – is dominated by lime peel-laced fig and honeydew melon, to which honeysuckle and heliotrope perfume add allure, and an aura of smokiness and high-toned suggestion of almond extract and peppermint add further pungent intrigue. The palate impression here manages adroitly to balance waxy texture, zesty piquancy, and infectious juiciness. "If you made the quantity of Semillon equal, it would take over the blend," notes Upchurch, channeling precisely the hypothesis I was myself entertaining at that moment. Everybody's giving up on Semillon," he adds with (what I at least hope is) hyperbole, "Californians, South Americans, even Australians; but I love working with it." Upchurch is proud of the particular assortment of barrels he has assembled to suit his Chaleur white, and it came as a big surprise to me after tasting this installment to learn that 70% of them were new; but the trick is that the wine spends only four months in them, based on what Upchurch, by analogy with baking, calls the "TODD" principle: take it out when it's done, dummy! This is likely to reward and morph significantly over a decade of cellaring.

• Wine Enthusiast: This new vintage of Chaleur Estate Blanc is still quite young and tight. It shows the toasty scents of pretty new oak, set in an elegant frame of mixed fruits. Cucumber, apple, citrus and melon flavors emerge, suggesting an overall lighter style from a cooler vintage. Graceful and polished.

Producer Information

DeLille Cellars is a prestigious Washington State wine producer, founded in 1992. With a focus on the Red Mountain AVA and other top sites in the Columbia Valley, it has been a leading player in establishing the viticultural credentials of the state. DeLille Cellars is also one of the first wineries in Washington to predominantly focus on producing both red and wines from Bordeaux varieties. DeLille was one of the first five wineries in the state to gain a 5-star rating for excellence from Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate. In recent years it has appeared four times in the annual Wines and Spirits Magazine Top 100 Wineries of the World list.
Grape are sourced from multiple estate and contracted vineyards spanning the Yakima Valley and Red Mountain AVAs: Harrison Hill, Grand Ciel, Klipsun, Boushey, Ciel du Cheval, Red Willow, Upchurch and Stillwater Creek. DeLille Cellars has held the rights to Harrison Hill vineyard since 1994, which is today part of the Snipes Mountain AVA. Snipes Mountain is known for its unique topography, high elevations and soils that differentiate it from the rest of the Yakima Valley AVA. The Harrison Hill vineyard was first planted to Cabernet Sauvignon in 1962 and features the second oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the state of Washington.

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