Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2012 Atlantique Blanc “Déclinaison”

Domaine de l’Alliance
Discount Eligible $42.00
SOLD OUT

Strap on your seatbelts, folks. The newly arrived duo of wines from Daniel Alibrand of Domaine de L’Alliance in Sauternes is going to turn some heads and challenge anyone who thinks they’ve tasted it all! Faced with a disastrous end to the growing season in 2012 and having gambled on leaving almost all his fruit on the vine to produce Sauternes, Daniel had to figure out a creative way to make wine out of partially botrytised grapes basically overnight, because Mother Nature turned her back on him and he had to pick them as they were. They didn’t have the profile of a dry wine or a sweet wine. So he made two different wines to challenge our perceptions of dry and sweet. The aromas here are like nothing you’ve ever experienced. The exotic mango, papaya, coconut, and pineapple introduce a sweet wine—or so you think. However, it turns out to be bone-dry. You will have a lot of fun pairing this pure Semillon with a myriad of foods: Southeast Asian cuisine, egg dishes, shrimp, and scallops—just a few ideas to get your mind in gear.

Dixon Brooke


Technical Information
Wine Type: white
Vintage: 2012
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Sémillon
Appellation: IGP Atlantique
Country: France
Region: Bordeaux
Producer: Domaine de l'Alliance
Winemaker: Valérie & Daniel Alibrand
Vineyard: Average of 50 years
Soil: Gravel, Clay, Sand
Aging: Vinified and raised in 350-L barrels (new and one passage
Farming: Organic (practicing)
Alcohol: 14%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Bordeaux

map of Bordeaux

Often considered the wine capital of the world, Bordeaux and its wines have captured the minds, hearts, and wallets of wine drinkers for centuries. For many, the wines provide an inalienable benchmark against which all other wines are measured.

Bordeaux is divided into three winegrowing regions with the city that gives the region its name in the near geographical center. The “right bank,” or the area located east of the Dordogne River, produces wines that are predominantly Merlot with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The “left bank” is located to the west of the Garonne River and produces wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

The third region, Entre-Deux-Mers, lies between both rivers and produces white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle. Though technically in the left bank, it is worth noting the appellation of Sauternes, which produces arguably the world’s most famous sweet wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle as well.

Though many top Bordeaux wines are sold en primeur (in advance of their bottling) and often through a middleman known as a negoçiant, Kermit has always preferred to purchase directly from the winemaker. For more than three decades he has sought out small producers, who make classic Bordeaux wines and are willing to play outside the negoçiant system. This ethic has led to longstanding relationships, excellent prices, and perhaps most important—wines of great value and longevity.

More from Bordeaux or France

Discount Eligible $48.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $52.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $48.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $45.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $32.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $53.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $33.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $58.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $123.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $27.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $76.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $14.00
AT CART MAX
Inspiring Thirst

I want you to realize once and for all: Even the winemaker does not know what aging is going to do to a new vintage; Robert Parker does not know; I do not know. We all make educated (hopefully) guesses about what the future will bring, but guesses they are. And one of the pleasures of a wine cellar is the opportunity it provides for you to witness the evolution of your various selections. Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.

Inspiring Thirst, page 171