Alphonse Mellot : Satellite 2011

Wine Advocate-Parker :
Tasted out of the tall upright cask and large new oval in which its entirety fermented and will spend life until last minute reunion and bottling, Mellot's Chavignol-dedicated 2011 Sancerre Satellite - from some of the estate's first picking, the last week in August - smells alluringly and tastes lusciously of ripe quince and grapefruit. Silken and lush, the palate here retains just enough fresh-fruitedness to server for refreshment, while notes of citrus rind and pip along with chalk, iodine and shrimp shell reduction serve for invigoration and saliva-inducement in a long finish. Lanolin, vanilla and resin are hard to overlook in the portion that fermented in a new oval but that lot also adds an interesting concentration of citrus oils and enhanced textural richness, so that proportional representation appears destined to result in harmony even if no special synergy materializes. I imagine - as with so many wines of this vintage - that we have something here to savor over the next 3-4 years, but there isn't even a track record that long for the bottle evolution of this cuvee, so any prognostication must be taken with a big grain of tartrate.