($40) Vivid gold. Exotically perfumed bouquet displays orange marmalade, apricot, mango, peach, brown butter, honey and baking spices. Lush, creamy pit and tropical fruit flavors show impressive depth and considerable sweetness, but subtle minerality adds back-end lift and cut. The finish doesn't let up, strongly repeating the honey and tropical fruit notes along with a hint of honeydew. This is sweet enough to serve with rich desserts or strong cheeses but I don't find it cloying. Very seductive already but balanced to age for at least another decade.

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Candied melon and honey dominate the nose and palate of the 2005 Coteaux du Layon Cuvee Le Paon. A formidably-concentrated, admirably pure, and not at all heavy wine, its sheer sweetness nevertheless overwhelms any sense of elegance and probably blocks access to more diverse flavors that would emerge if one chose to give this 5-7 years in the cellar. But I fear that excellent though it is, this wine has too much competition from within its own ranks alone

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Very enticing, with quince, pear, persimmon and fig aromas and flavors. Yet this is never heavy, only pure and refined, with a lovely, caressing finish. The acidity is really buried, and this should cruise in the cellar.

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