Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc aging in 50% new oak, the 2018 Les Hauts De Smith Blanc offers a more mineral-driven, almost salty style as well as racy notes of lemon curd, crushed rocks, toasted spice, brioche, and honeysuckle. Medium-bodied, concentrated, with racy acidity, it's a rockingly good white in a vintage that was difficult for the variety. Barrel Sample: 92-94.
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Wine Enthusiast
Smoothly textured with a line of citrus and apple flavors, this wine (one of two second white wines at the estate) has subtle wood-aging flavors that support the fruits and give richness and pleasure. The wine will benefit from a little further aging, so drink from 2022. Organic and biodynamic
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced from 100% Sauvignon Blanc matured in 50% new oak, the 2018 Les Hauts de Smith Blanc leaps from the glass with vivacious notions of fresh lime juice, Granny Smith apples and fresh pears plus wafts of white peaches, coriander seed and chalk dust. The medium-bodied palate delivers bags of apple and pear flavors with a racy line and a citrusy lift on the finish.
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Decanter
I always love tasting this wine during En Primeur and just having a moment of pure pleasure, enjoy the crisp, pure fruit flavours. It's a very enjoyable wine, a little soft on the finish compared to other vintages, but with juicy fruit. It will be ready to go soon. 50% new oak. Drinking Window 2019 - 2025. Barrel Sample: 91
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.