Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Semillon
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 80% Sauvignon and 20% Semillon that hit 14% natural alcohol, this is serious wine boasting notes of lemon and lime marmalade intermixed with honeysuckle, a whiff of freshly cut grass and a waxy, melony character. Aromatically complex, this relatively big Malartic Lagraviere should drink well for up to 20 or more years. A great wine!
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Wine Enthusiast
Big, ripe and delicious, this is packed with spice and sweet apricot fruits. It's full and opulent, very much a wine of 2009, yet it retains its sense of balance and structure.
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Wine Spectator
Subtle toasted brioche and blanched almond notes hold a core of heather, white peach, and green plum at bay for now. This finish is long and suave, with nice buried cut. Should blossom with brief cellaring.
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.