Winemaker Notes
The Sauvignon Blanc wines are very expressive and fruity, with a bouquet of peach and white flowers. They are rich, but show good acidity on the palate, along with a beautiful, pure, and deep flavor profile.
Blend: 75% Sauvignon Blanc, 25% Semillon
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This beautifully textured wine is already balanced but has a fine future. The cool, crisp texture contrasts with ripe fruitiness and spice from wood aging. Drink this wine from 2023.
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Decanter
Some welcome freshness and grip here. A little soft still through the finish but with a definite touch of citrus peel and white pear flesh, white flowers also. This has charm and some forward motion along with lifts of spice and slate.
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Wine Spectator
Features an atypical bitter orange edge that melds nicely with the core of lemon curd, gooseberry and nectarine notes. Flashes of verbena and orange blossom check in, leading to a long singed almond thread on the finish. Distinctive. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. Drink now through 2025
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James Suckling
Dried apricot, grapefruit zest, crushed stones and a hint of hay on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with bright acidity and a creamy, layered texture. Mineral finish. Tangy and bright now but better in 2022 and onwards.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With a fair bit of swirling, Olivier's 2018 Blanc leaps from the glass with energetic notes of fresh grapefruit, ripe pears and pineapple, plus hints of lime blossoms and dill seed with a waft of wet pebbles. The medium-bodied palate is elegantly styled with intense citrus and tropical fruit flavors, marked by a racy backbone, finishing refreshingly steely.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Château Olivier Blanc is a juicy, elegant white offering plenty of tart pineapple, lemon, and honeyed grapefruit notes in a medium-bodied, bright, racy package. It's nicely balanced, has good purity, and is well worth following over the coming 3-5 years or more.
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.