2013 Pabuk's Gift Late Harvest Botrytized Chardonnay
(375 ml.) Copper-tinged gold. Deeply perfumed smoke-accented pit fruit liqueur honey and floral scents show a hint of toasted grain in the background. Lush and broad on the palate offering intensely sweet apricot and candied pear flavors and a strong jolt of mint on the back half. Hangs on with impressive tenacity on the finish leaving notes of honey mint and candied pit fruits behind.
- Josh Raynolds, Vinous, January 2017 - 92 points
Typhoon Pabuk drenched the valley during harvest and botrytised these grapes. Making lemonade out of that lemon, the winery hand-sorted the grapes and crafted this ultrarich dessert wine. Dense flavors of butterscotch and sweet lemon candy make a potent combo. One half-size bottle will easily satisfy four sweet tooths.
- Paul Gregutt, Wine Enthusiast, December 2016 - 92 points
Estate grown and bottled. At the end of September in 2012, extensive rains led to botrytis (noble rot) in the Chardonnay grapes particularly in one block. This rare event was caused by warm weather following typhoon Pabuk. The rains started the fungus infection, but the subsequent weather held it in check. Harvest Brix was 37.4º. About half Dijon clone 76 and half Dijon clone 95. Moderately light cantaloupe color in the glass. Aromas of fig, ripe pineapple, honey and wax and a dead ringer for a French sauterne. Delicious flavors of dried apricot, honey, tropical fruits and fig spread. Somewhat viscous, not overtly sweet, sliding off the back of the palate like a silk sheet. The finish is notably adorned with intensity. A superb sweet wine with a story (read about it on the website) that makes it even more appealing. I do not drink much sweet wine and review even less, so a score would be superfluous. I would just say, I loved the wine.
- William "Rusty" Gaffney, M.D., PinotFile, September 2016
Sometimes disasters have a happy ending. Such is this wine, one of the GREATEST LATE-HARVEST WINES ever created in the Pacific Northwest: the 2013 Amalie Robert Estate Botrytis Chardonnay.
In 2013, everything was hunky dory in Oregon vineyards. The beautiful vintage was right on schedule until the massive remnants of Typhoon Pabuk dumped 9 inches of rain on western Oregon over four September days. After that sogfest, the weather dried out and Amalie Robert winemaker Ernie Pink, a bit dejected, walked his vineyards, discovering that the Noble Rot, Botrytis cinerea, had infected his Chardonnay.
He and his wife, Dena Drews, managed to salvage a mere 70 buckets of shriveled and affected grapes in late October. It took them 3 days of hand picking the good mold from the bad --berry by berry-- to get the juice for this extraordinary wine. The nectar measured 44% sugar, and the wine fermented to 10% alcohol. The resulting wine is easily mistaken for a top-tier French Sauternes.
This honeyed gift is a fantastic achievement and probably a once-in-a-lifetime wine. Or so they hope! And, it is, to the best of my knowledge, the first late-harvest botrytis Chardonnay ever produced in Oregon. If anyone knows differently, Dena, Ernie, and I would sure love to know.
- Ron Zimmerman, February 2015 - The Herbfarm, AAA 5-Diamond, Seattle, WA
The 2013 Pabuk’s Gift is the result of the namesake typhoon after it wiped out the Chardonnay vines. There were 70 buckets of berries that were pressed over a day, then fermented up to 10.2% alcohol and stopped with dry ice. The bouquet is clean and pure with clear honey, quince jus, marmalade and just a touch of wax resin. The palate is medium-bodied with racy acidity cutting through the mellifluous honeyed fruit and it works because it is not overpowering or cloying on the finish, but glides across the mouth. Perhaps it should be renamed Pabuk’s silver lining?
- The Wine Advocate, March 2015 - 91 points
