In celebration of the pending arrival of my latest Idlewild order, I cracked last night:
1. Idlewild Arneis FoxHillVnyd/MendoCnty (13.6%; www.IdlewildWines.com) 2013: Med.gold color; slight phenolic/skin-contact/resiny/valve oil very fragrant/perfumed pineapple/dried mango almost muscatty slight stony/mineral/Arneis beautiful nose; slight tangy/phenolic lightly tart rich/ripe/pineapple/dried mango/floral almost muscatty flavor; very long rather floral/muscatty pineapple/dried mango light resiny/phenolic/skin-contact lightly tart slight stony/mineral finish; a rather exotic rendition of Arneis unlike any from Piemonte; very intense floral character and lightly Arneis stoney; a beautiful exotic white. $28.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Idlewild is the wnry of SamBilbro whom I have, I might add, followed from the very start. His focus is on Italian varieties and is making some very/very interesting wines.
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2. I last had this '13 almost two yrs ago. My florid/over-the-top TN's are very similar in referring to the exotic perfume this wine shows. This time, the aromatics seemed to be slightly toned down and not so much resembling in smell a French whorehouse. Plus, this time I seemed to pick up a bit of phenolic/skin-contact character. Before, I compared it to a perfumey Alsatian wine. This time, the slight phenolic character reminded me more of a Malvasia d'Istria from the Carso. Not sure if this wine actually had skin-contact or not, though. I could be dead wrong...not the first time by far.
Tom