Domaine de L'Alliance, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France 2023

A wine to buy for its excellent price/quality ratio along, this 90% Sémillon-based wine from a 14ha vineyard in Fargues evinces a cornucopia of aromas and flavours imbued with botrytis spice, including grapefruit, black tea and ginger. I love its fresh, crispy aspect, like so much autumnal freshness. It lacks the opulent mid palate of the very top wines of Sauternes and Barsac, but this balanced sweet wine shows excellent palate tension (and fun), at 13.3 alcohol with 143 grams of residual sugar and 4.3 grams of total acidity.