Renčel - Cuvee 2001

A mind-blowing back vintage from a long established but little known winemaker in the Slovenian Karst region.

I employ a crude rating system when I'm jotting down tasting notes in the field. A wine gets either no stars (anything from terrible to quite good), one star (very good/excellent), or very rarely two stars (outstanding). 2015's first two star wine was Josko Renčel's  stunning white blend, simply called "cuvée".

Having tasted Renčel's delicious cuvée 2011 and a scrumptious Sauvignon 2009 at this year's Orange Wine Festival, I thought I was done. Then he slyly opened up one of those under the counter "just one more" bottles, which turned out to be a mature vintage of Cuvée - the 2001.

This 14 year old blend has extraordinary concentration, a pure focused core of apricot and pear compote, almond, hints of ginger and clove and a soft, seductive texture. I don't have many technical details about the wine, but I guess it had 2-3 weeks of maceration and was probably quite tannic in its youth, if the 2011 is anything to go by.

Everything about this sensational wine is bright and lively, leading …