Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc Section 94 2018

Fragrant, intense and succulent, with distinctive honeysuckle, chamomile, spicy marmalade and ripe peach flavors on a fleshy frame, showing a touch of lanolin. Notes of mango, mineral and candied ginger emerge on the finish. Drink now. (12/2020)

The complex style is nicely dialed-in here, offering a fresh array of grilled lemon and peach with some gently nutty aromas, as well as a lime-curd edge. Really fresh. The palate has fleshy and smooth texture with praline-like flavors sitting in a fresh citrus and peach core. Drink now. (10/2020)

From a single parcel within Dog Point’s vineyards, located at the confluence of the Brancott and Omaka valleys, the vines planted in 1992 on free-draining, silty clay-loam alluvial soils. A warm spring and late summer were followed by cool but good conditions into the autumn, with harvest concluded rapidly to beat heavy rains in mid-April 2017. The wine was fermented and aged in used French oak barrels for 18 months, and bottled without fining. Toasty wood to the fore on the nose, but there’s key lime pie richness and herbal notes of marjoram and bay. Ripe lemon and lime citrus with lightly tropical passion fruit and pineapple, though the fruit is underscored by a distinctly earthy/mushroom creamy character enhancing complexity on mid-palate and finish, which has great length. Best with food such as meaty fish, tuna steak or chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce. (9/2019)

Struck flint and hints of woodsmoke appear on the nose of the 2017 Section 94, a Sauvignon Blanc fermented in barrel with indigenous yeasts. This is a tight, compact vintage for this bottling, with tightly coiled grapefruit flavors partially concealed by notions of fresh greens and crushed stone. It's crisp and medium-bodied, with a citrusy finish. It's a solid effort, but compared to other recent Section 94s, it leaves me wanting more.

Bright, light yellow. Sexy leesy funkiness to the aromas of ripe peach, fresh herbs and stony minerality, plus a touch of lemon peel with air. Quite dry and tactile, with penetrating, distinctly saline mineral acidity currently keeping the wine's primary fruit flavors under wraps; still some undissolved CO2. A fascinating extract-rich Sauvignon, at once fine-grained, salty and very long. Strong minerality and lemony cut reminded me a bit of Burgundy. Extremely young wine with terrific inner-mouth tension. and a superb tactile, rising finish. Not at all about fruit in the early going. (ST) (5/2016)