Winemaker Notes
#85 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
Pale yellow robe. The nose is already expressive and very complex, combining ripe fruit notes (peach, fresh apricot, fresh mango), crystalline citrus notes (pomelo, pink grapefruit), and more delicate and elegant hints of spices and flowers (star anise, elderflower, acacia). The bouquet reflects the essence of the vintage: a beautiful combination of ripe fruit maturity with freshness and elegance. The attack is dense and broad, with a superb texture and creamy mouthfeel. The wine stretches across the palate, supported by refreshing acidity and a long, dazzling finish. The sweet–fresh balance is truly remarkable, with volume and silkiness perfectly countered by vibrant freshness. On the palate: an explosion of fruit that evolves into more refined, sophisticated aromatics—sweet spices, star anise, floral notes, and the signature flinty minerality of great Smith Haut Lafitte whites.
Blend: 90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sauvignon Gris, 5% Sémillon
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The wine is dominated by fine Sauvignon Blanc. It has a marvelous poise between great freshness and richness, which is especially impressive given it's from a dry year. This is a powerful wine, a great success given the growing conditions.
Barrel Sample: 97-99 -
Jeb Dunnuck
Simply stunning and undeniably one of the whites of the vintage, the 2022 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc has a light gold hue as well as a brilliant perfume of honeyed grapefruit, crushed stone, and lemon zest. Rich, full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and concentrated on the palate, it’s one of those rare whites that brings a red wine-like sense of structure and mouthfeel while staying vibrant, juicy, and incredibly precise.
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James Suckling
The sliced apples and pears with lemon blossoms and hints of dried pineapple and flint follow through to a medium body with brightness and energy. The finish is impressive with white pepper, crushed sea salt and spice. Really great finish here. All about energy. 90% sauvignon blanc, 5% semillon and 5% sauvignon gris.
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Wine Spectator
This shimmers with a salted butter note that adds a flattering edge to its panoply of shortbread, singed almond, honeysuckle, lemon curd and creamed white peach flavors. Feels regal, with a long finish that deftly toes the balance between the toasted and fresh, unadorned sides of the spectrum. A rare dry white that can handle all four seasons as anything from a solo aperitif to a main course partner. Beautiful. Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Sauvignon Gris.
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Decanter
Lovely perfumed notes, floral, intensely fruity with vanilla, elderflower, green apple, pear, peach and white blossom, expressive and aromatic. Succulent and juicy straight away, a real hit of citrus juice, sharp and intense, so lively and yet the texture is quite filling giving a well balanced mouthfeel. Calm but layered, you feel the precision of each aspect, the soft toasted notes, bitter grapefruit and lemon peel, crisp green apple and mineral salinity - each is carefully presented. It’s rich and has concentration but keeps the focus delivering a supremely drinkable and nuanced wine. I love the mineral tang and long length. You get the feeling of a large, warm vintage but the acidity and focus is there, so it doesn't end heavy. Lots to like here and one of the best whites of 2022.
Barrel Sample: 96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Blanc from Smith Haut Lafitte is an impressive effort this year, evoking aromas of white fruits, pear, white peach, spices and spring flowers. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered, it's rich and concentrated with ripe acids enhanced by beautiful, chalky dry extracts, culminating in a long, saline and lovely oaky finish. This white wine always rewards patience and marries tension and charm to pleasing effect.
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.