2014 Arbois Pupillin Chardonnay

You always get to taste younger and older wines that might have been bottled again, and luckily enough, the labels now carry the bottling date on the right side, which was not the case before and you never knew what you were drinking. While tasting here, most bottles do not have a label, so unless you ask or Manu tells you, you don't know exactly what bottling it is. That was the case with the 2014 Arbois Pupillin Chardonnay (sealed with white wax). It was cropped from a cold vintage and has a faint lactic twist with a very fresh palate with some herbal hints and notes of apples with an acidic and sharp profile. This aged in foudre for four years, so it must have been bottled at the end of 2018 or early 2019, because I had already tasted it in bottle back in 2019. This has evolved quite well; it still feels quite young, and it should be long lived. As usual, this is not at all about fruit; it's mineral and austere, with a stony quality amplified by the high-acidity profile of the year.