Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Sémillon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense, layered white with cooked-apple, honey and lemon aromas and flavors. Layered and flavorful with a zingy, mineral finish. 80% sauvignon with 20% semillon.
Barrel Sample: 92-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Le Petit Haut Lafitte Blanc is made up of 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon, aging in 50% new barriques. It offers open-knit scents of fresh Bosc pears, lemongrass and green guava, plus hints of white pepper and wet slate. The medium-bodied palate is crisp and refreshing, delivering mouth-filling apple and lemon-inspired flavors with a satiny texture and zesty finish.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Decanter
A richer texture than the Hauts de Smith, less aromatic overall, one that is aimed more at the restaurant trade. The feel and form in the mouth is spherical but beautifully precise, it has weight through the mid palate with citrus fruits, white flowers and touch of bitterness on the finish of saffron and turmeric. 50% new oak.
Barrel Sample: 92
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.