Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Lightly herbal, this is a crisp and bright wine. The strong structural element will allow the wine to age, with a textured character and perfumed acidity at the end.
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Decanter
This wine has Pessac typicity, on the high-gloss side of things. Its pretty high in Sauvignon/Semillon character on the nose, which is good, and it has clear typicity, although the oak overshadows the minerality. It has a gourmet ending, with an apricot and honeysuckle twist, as well as high acidity.
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Wine Spectator
Very fresh, with lovely verbena, honeysuckle and jasmine notes leading the way, backed by racy meringue, yellow apple and melon rind flavors, showing a very late flash of oyster shell detail. Drink now through 2022.
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James Suckling
Linear and solid white with sliced-apple, pear and lemon character. Full body. Little old style but I like it — as always.
Barrel Sample: 90-91 Points -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Carbonnieux 2016 Blanc features fresh white peaches, Bosc pears and honeysuckle with touches of lemongrass and yuzu. Medium-bodied, refreshing and with a lovely intensity of apple and pears layers, it finishes on a mineral note.
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Jeb Dunnuck
An outstanding white, the 2016 Château Carbonnieux Blanc has a tight, slightly reductive style in its lime, citrus zest, and mineral-like aromas and flavors. These flow to a medium-bodied, elegant white that has bracing acidity yet good fruit. It needs a year or two of bottle age to come together, but it’s beautiful.
Rating: 90+
Sometimes light and crisp, other times rich and creamy, Bordeaux White Blends typically consist of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Often, a small amount of Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris is included for added intrigue. Popularized in Bordeaux, the blend is often mimicked throughout the New World. Somm Secret—Sauternes and Barsac are usually reserved for dessert, but they can be served before, during or after a meal. Try these sweet wines as an aperitif with jamón ibérico, oysters with a spicy mignonette or during dinner alongside hearty Alsatian sausage.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.