Wine Advisor
Doisy Daene 2009
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Denis Dubourdieu has provided one of the genuine stars of the vintage with the Chateau Doisy-Daene, two, if you count his Extravagance. This has a very fragrant nose with apple blossom, lime leaf and a touch of honey. Very fresh and lifted...spring-like. The palate is very well balanced, not a powerful Sauternes but ethereally poised and focused, skipping blithely to an animated pear, honeysuckle and apricot finish. Very pretty, very complete and very outstanding.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2009 Doisy-Daene was spectacular out of barrel, however it has never quite reached those ethereal heights in bottle. Perhaps this rich, generous vintage did not quite suit the crisp, tense style of Denis Dubourdieu’s Barsac? Compared to others in this blind tasting, it comes across as more muted on the nose with scents of beeswax, marmalade and lanolin, though the Sauvignon Blanc is very expressive. The palate is very well-balanced on the entry with crisp acidity cutting through the viscous texture. The finish is rounded in the mouth, offering attractive notes of lemon sherbet and orange essence. Everything is very “contained” at the moment, although the tension suggests that it should age well. I suspect this will need a decade before it really blossoms. Drink 2020-2040.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The Doisy Daene 2009 is quite delicious now giving intense aromas of lemon marmalade, preserved kumquat, mandarin peel and honeycomb. The palate is big, rich and sweet with a seductive silkiness and around 150 g/l of residual sugar / 14% alcohol. Long in the finish, it only seems slightly lacking in Botrytic character but is nonetheless an enticing wine.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Pale gold in color, the 2009 Doisy Daëne features expressive notes of honeyed lemons, dried mango slices, apricot tart and Seville orange marmalade with a touch of shaved almonds. The palate delivers mouth-filling stone fruit and citrus preserves layers with great purity and a lively backbone, finishing wonderfully zesty and youthful.
About the Producer
Château Doisy Daëne is Bordeaux wine producer located in the commune of Barsac. Its sweet white wine ranked as Second Cru Classé (French, “Second Growth”) in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. It belongs to the Sauternes appellation in Gironde, in the region of Graves. The three Doisy wine estates, Château Doisy Daëne, Château Doisy-Védrines, Château Doisy-Dubroca, originate from one single estate, the early history and division of which is not very well documented. The earliest documented mention of the Doisy wine cru is in André Julliens book Topographie de tous les vignobles connus in 1832. The Daëne part of the name comes from Jean Jacques Emmanuel Daëne, who was the vineyard owner and a wine merchant in Bordeaux, and who at some stage bought one of three portions of the estate. J.J.E. Daëne's three sons inherited the wine estate in 1875, and in the same year they sold a portion of it the Dubroca brothers of Doisy-Dubroca. In 1878 Doisy-Daëne was sold to Jean Paul Billot, and his daughter Pauline inherited it in 1884, and sold it to the Debans brothers in 1889. From 1924 Château Doisy Daëne has been owned by the Dubourdieu family. Georges Dubourdieu acquired it from the Debans heirs in 1924. Georges stayed in control until 1949, when his son Pierre Dubourdieu took over. One of Pierre Dubourdieu's innovations, in the early 1950s, was to start also making a dry white wine, the first in the Sauternes area. In 2000, Pierre's son Denis Dubourdieu took over the control estate. In 1990 and as a result of an experiment, Denis had introduced l'Extravagant de Doisy-Daëne, a concentrated wine of higher sweetness than usual Sauternes, produced from highly botrytised grapes. Doisy Daëne has 18.2 hectares (45 acres) of vineyards, planted with 86% Sémillon and 14% Sauvignon blanc. Until the 2008 vintage, there was also a small amount of Muscadelle in the vineyards. Doisy-Daëne produces three wines: Château Doisy Daëne, its sweet Sauternes wine, in composition close to the average of the estate's vineyards; Grand Vin Sec du Château Doisy-Daëne, a dry Bordeaux Blanc from 100% Sauvignon blanc and aged 8 months in oak barrels of which 20% new oak; L'Extravagant de Doisy-Daëne, an extra sweet Sauternes produced in some vintages. 45% to 80% Sémillon and 20% to 55% Sauvignon blanc depending on the vintage.
