Pacherenc Alain Brumont

Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh '00
[£15.95, Haslemere Cellar, 2002 = £9, Philglas & Swiggot Ltd, T: 020 7924 4494]

I AM amazed I've only just come across this shiny, deep copper-coloured lovely. n the nose, this exuberant very sweet wine proffers a touch of linseed oil, pine nut and luxurious wet oak leaf. A touch thorny too. On the palette extraordinary pine kernels, ripe Christmas clementines, citrus zest, crystallised caramalised sugar, with a zippy, ripe, excellent acidity, sturdy mouthfeel and a resounding, high pitched aftertaste. Quite unlike any other sticky-style I've ever really tasted, this was sublimely apt and ripe. A real mouth-filler. Punchy. It was almost too powerful with it's outrageously aromatic sensation.

Consumed with roast figs, though the two fought.

Vic-Bilh translates as old country, a location deep within the languedoc, south west France.