Easton Natoma

[Innkeeper]

1999 Easton, Natoma, Sierra Foothills ($16.00). This wine is 62% sauvignon blanc, and 38% semillon; which easily qualifies it as a Graves, Bordeaux type wine. The background information sent my antennae atwitter. It was fermented in French oak (25% new) and laid on its lees seemingly forever. At least there was no mal involved. It weighs in at 13.5% alcohol, and 6.8 gm/ltr acidity. Three things saved it, semillon, terrior, and acidity.

It starts out with ripe melons on the nose and upfront. It must be raised on a southern facing slope in Fiddletown that lets the sauvignon ripen slowly and fully and this terrior and the resulting acidic complexity runs across the palate, before the sultry semillon finishes the wine in ecstasy. Never in a million years did I think I'd like this baby. The oak faded into the background of the good stuff. It's a winner, even though I felt a tingling under my lower front lip from the acid. I like that in a white wine as much as I like tannin in a red.

Drank it primarily as an aperitif with some cold fried chicken in the middle. Great both ways..