Winemaker Notes
Blend: 70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Semillon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A solid white with sliced apple, pineapple and lime aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, layered and intense. Dense fruit palate and a tangy finish. Excellent.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Southwold 2012 tasting. The 2012 LaTour-Martillac Blanc has a clean, well-defined bouquet with citrus lemon, yellow flowers and light chalky scents. The palate is fresh and lively on the entry, bright with a touch of spice, greengage and gooseberry notes flowing towards the sustained finish. This is a delightful white Bordeaux from LaTour-Matillac.
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Wine Enthusiast
Steely and tight, it has intense acidity, a dense texture and powerful green apple and grapefruit flavors. The wine is still finding its way, suggesting considerable potential for long-term aging.
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Wine Spectator
A bright, pure style, with a fleur de sel note leading the way for lemon zest, pink grapefruit, white peach and honeysuckle flavors that knit nicely and bounce through the finish.
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.