Winemaker Notes
Combining balance and complexity, the white wine is fresh and elegant.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This is both racy and rich, with quinine, honeysuckle and lemon pith notes along the edges of a core of yellow apple, white peach and acacia flavors. Everything knits nicely through the finely tuned finish. Drink now through 2022.
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James Suckling
This white shows dried apples and pears with some stones and dried lemon grass. Medium-to full-bodied, chalky and flavorful. Drink now.
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Decanter
Clear oak finessing with a little twist of vanilla custard cream among the white peaches. A pure quality, one for lovers of gourmet whites.
Barrel Sample -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Clos Marsalette Blanc from this estate is terrific and well worth seeking out. Beautiful minerality, lime, and just a kiss of brioche all emerge from this Sauvignon-dominated effort that’s medium-bodied, balanced, and juicy. Drink it over the coming 4-6 years, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see it keep longer.
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.