Winemaker Notes
Blend: 98% Sauvignon Blanc, 2% Sauvignon Gris
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This generous wine is full of white fruits and ripe acidity. A tangy texture balances this richness, giving edginess to the wine's structure. At this stage, the wine is young, needing plenty of time for the concentration to soften and allow the wine to open. Drink from 2022.
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James Suckling
This shows so much intensity and brightness with sliced limes and lemons. Some papaya, too. Medium-bodied, tight and fresh with vivid acidity. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc, the Couhins 2017 Blanc starts off a little closed before revealing scents of fresh lime juice, lemonade and orange blossoms plus hints of wet pebbles, jasmine and white pepper. Medium-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-coating citrus and mineral layers plus a racy backbone, finishing long and chalky.
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Decanter
Full of flavour and grip, this has a lovely expressive nature, although it majors heavily on the grassy, passion fruit side of Sauvignon. A wine with bite and grip, this is full of pleasure for medium term drinking; another success for the whites in 2017.
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.