I wonder how many wine reviewers actually go back in private and re-taste a wine they already reviewed. If they do take a second look, I wonder if that second look has them rating that wine the same score as the first tasting did. I for one am not ashamed to admit that I occasionally do a second look of wines I have already reviewed. As always, I am going to keep it real and tell you that 99% of these second looks end up coming in at the original rating and at no time has a wine gone from being what I consider to be cellar worthy to not being cellar worthy or a bad wine to a good wine. I really enjoy doing those second look reviews as it is a challenge to see just how consistent my palate is. The only think I take from the older review is the actual specific (tech sheet) information on the wine that I already researched. Well guys, Today I will be doing a second look of a wine I reviewed a few months ago because I am really curious to see if the original tasting score still holds up.
Let's
begin by talking about the grape varietal I am reviewing which is named Picpoul De Pinet (Piquepoul Blanc)
which
means "stings the lip" in English. It turns out that there are many varieties of Picpoul
grapes aside from the white version, including the Piquepoul Noir variety
which is black or red in color. The grape is also of the Vitis
Viniferia species as are almost all grapes used for wine. The grape
originated in Rome
actually in 125 BC outside the Roman colony of Narbo (Narbonne) however
it has made a new and successful home in the Languedoc-Roussillon region
of France. In France the varietal is mostly used as a
blending grape however there is some
experimenting going on in the Wilcox AVA of Arizona and California
(Sonoma) as well as Texas in the Texas Hill Country AVA & the Texas
High Plains AVA as well.
Today I am reviewing the 2020 Benjamin Denault, Picpoul De Pinet. This wine cost me $11.99 and its alcohol percentage comes in at 13%. The bottle is cork (real) sealed and the grapes for the wine come from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. As for residual sugar, the winemaker Benjamin Denault informed me that there is none which is awesome.
Let's begin as I usually do and that is by talking about the label first. This is the first thing that catches the consumers eye after all so to me, next to the wines palate presentation, this is the most important thing concerning a wine. I really like this label guys.
To me the label screams a small chateau somewhere in some small foreign country and in some small town that few tourists ever go to. I have visions in my mind of sheep roaming the streets or goats being herded from pasture to pasture. With the grape originating in France, the label works nicely.
Let's talk about the nose of this wine now? Bringing the glass to my nose the wine offers up notes of oak, a bit of butteriness, white flowers and pear. The nose is showing off a wine that appears to be tropical but hopefully it won't be an overly fruity, sweet, sugar bomb.
Okay, now for the palate characteristics of the wine. A well controlled dual/combo note of oak & butteriness is present on the wines opening and while that combo note is a forward one, before you go saying that you aren't going to buy the wine because of this, please hear me out. Straight off I will tell you that I do not like an oakey/buttery Chardonnay or white wine in general and I promise you, this is not that wine. There are other notes here which control that combo note successfully and in a way, even supersedes it very successfully. There is a simply wonderful dryness to the wine guys and I would even go so far as to say that to me, that dryness here is the key to what makes the wine great. Did I say great? Oh yeah, I guess I did. A melon note is here as well, an ultra ripe honeydew melon note intermixes with everything else here and...... WOW! Ripe green apple is really making its presence known and this apple is juicy and fresh for sure and it really does show itself here. Bosch Pear is an underlying note here yet it manages to make its presence known as well and it is well placed and yummy. Guys, before I go on I have to tell you that this is not a sweet wine however there is a bit of fresh and ripe fruit sweetness present. The sweetness most definitely does not dominate the wine but it is something that is needed in order to make this wine what it is. Another note here is of honeysuckle, fresh, outdoor, honeysuckle that you smell as you walk past the plant outside and only imagine you can taste. 
As for acidity, it is moderate and interacts incredibly well with the dryness aspect of the wine. The acidity itself comes on really fast but quickly fades leaving that mentioned dryness to go by itself which turns out to be just perfect. A saline note is here as well but it meshes incredibly well with everything in general. Lastly, there is a flinty note here as well guys and it is a note which really helps in elevating this wine for sure. Well there you have it guys, my review of a very impressive and ultra enjoyable wine. I will go on ahead now and wrap this review, see you in the next paragraph.
Okay, the moment of truth, what are my final feelings on the wine? Let's begin with my rating of the wine. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 95 points, I loved it. I will tell you this though, keep the wine very cold because as it warms, the sweetness increases and that is never a good thing, at least in my book anyway. Guys, I am going to go right now and check out my past review draft of this wine and see what I rated this wine, I will be right back. Okay, I am back and in that review I rated this wine at.....95 points. Oh yeah, party dance, getting down, totally.......righteous.....ahhh....yeah...okay. As of now, the 2022 vintage of this wine is available and if it is anything like this wine, it is going to be amazing. I highly recommend that you go out and buy three bottles of this wine just as I am going to do because I know you will love the heck out of it.
The Desert Wine Guy
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