Chateau de Plaisance Savennieres,1999

At the Chateau de Plaisance website, the winemaker recommends drinking Savennieres wines either 1) before three years of age "for fruit" or 2) after 10 years. And that is pretty much what I have discovered about Savennieres; wines between the ages of 3 and 10 can be so difficult to drink that it's easy to think of them as being overly mature. Conversely, I have never gone wrong by keeping a Loire Chenin Blanc for a decade or two--over even longer. I have bottles from the early 1980s that are still drinking terrifically.

The color is a fairly deep gold--what you would expect from an 18-year-old white wine. The smells, though, are lively and intense. Grapefruit, minerals, flowers. Chenin Blanc depth. More of the same in the mouth. The tense grapefruit is countered by the ripeness of white peaches. Amazing grip; clings to every surface of the mouth, leaving a desire for more.