Domaine des Chenevières, Macon-Villages, Les Saints-Jean, Chardonnay, 2019, 13% abv.
South Korea for some reason has identified four evils: alcohol, gambling, prostitution, and drugs. There's musical chairs and sample with replacement with these evils though depending on President or whichever Abrahamic cult is in charge at the time. I think they've recently replaced prostitution with digital gaming, but you get the idea. Because of this, taxes and fees for imported liquor (or imports in general) are ridiculously high. This has forced many domestic companies to look for margin-existent substitutes. Thus, Domaine des Chenevières. Let's face it, Domaine des Chenevières is not a household name in the wine sector… and their bottlings sell/sold for a few euros, but it's a product importers can get and charge 5-10× markup. So here we are.
Nose: upon opening it is initially green grapes and lemons, but this leads to major frozen and gloriously grilled pineapple, light citrus, lesser green grapes, frozen anjou pear, some aromas similar to "Galbi marinade/sauce". First time I got so much distinct pineapple. Truly wonderful. After some airtime and a reduction to room temperature, the aromas are major vanilla rivaling even some famous modern California chardonnays (e.g. Aubert, Kongsgaard), honey butter, sweet honey glaze on some pastries, some chalk too. Lovely.
Palate: light body, quite oily, initial palate is light green grape juice, mid palate is mild copper, aluminum, nickel with hints of iron, calcium carbonate, and light construction gravel and medium cobblestones, although these mineral-y elements subside with each glass. The back palate has a pinch of chlorine, steamed pork blood. With time the mid and back palates show progressive intensities of vanilla although never mildly dominant, mild floral honey, and alcohol keeps rearing it's ugly head (this isn't whisky!) which provides a contrast to the chlorine. I also have to say this is a delicate pour, because I drank glasses before and during light food. During food, the flavors were much lighter in intensity and alcohol was front-and-center, but with increasing time after food, portions of the original elements reappeared. Did not make food better as the alcohol continued to get stronger ans stronger… but only 13%?!?!
Finish: short, hint of diluted lemonade, some chloride products.
Vernacular: nose is primary pineapple with supporting fruit. Palate is light bodied, fresh, strong acidity and minerality, mildly enjoyable secondary oak elements. Short finish shows additional minerality. Strong alcohol appeared on palate and finish.
That nose was a delightful surprise! It couldn't keep up with expectations after that, in fact, it pulled a sleight-of-hand with all the minerality and luckily some evidence of decent barrels with the vanilla and honey, but the aftertaste definitely wasn't agreeing with me… chlorine always reminds me of public swimming pools. I wonder what the barrel regiment was. Drinking window after opening is short. So much more potential here and also much better than most of the Mâconnais I've had when in the drinking window. Le Guide Hachette des Vins gave this 2 stars in 2022. Got this for KRW₩49k, about USD$37. Good QPR as they say, but fickle with all the window adjustments. The highs are high, but the lows are also low. Might be conservative in my evaluation.
Grade: C+
by starvinggigolo