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Rich waxy, spicy nose, really leaps out of the glass at you. Great rich roundness on the palate, with lots of juicy white stone fruit, mixed peel, acacia and orange blossom. Almost ethereal, it continues to build on the palate, with a wonderful saline mineral precision following through to a finish that fans out – true peacock’s tail stuff! You can sense the quality of the fruit in this vintage, particularly the Semillon – great phenolic grip and intensity, and built for the long haul. If you can get your hands on some of this, you won’t regret it! 59% Semillon, 41% Sauvignon Blanc.
The 2024 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, which has more Sémillon in the blend, was reticent on the nose and demanded more coaxing than usual, (reluctantly) offering scents of red apple, lime flower and crushed stone. The palate is more expressive with impressive weight and density. The 2024 is fresh and vibrant with palpable tension, revealing a tingle of lemongrass and stem ginger towards its sustained finish. When I returned to my glass after 20 minutes, the aromatics had burst open and shown their true colours, with hints of chai and popcorn and wonderful mineralité. This might turn out to be one of the best white La Missions in recent years.
The 2024 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc reveals a gently reductive bouquet of pear, white peach, confit citrus and verbena mingled with exotic anise touches that emerge with time in the glass. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, it's bright and enveloping with an elegantly phenolic mid-palate and a mouthwateringly mordant finish. This is a blend of 59% Sémillon and 41% Sauvignon Blanc.
The 2024 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc is powerful and very deep, despite its understated personality. Orchard fruit, lemon peel, slate, mint, white pepper and chalk all grace the palate. Clean mineral notes extend the finish effortlessly. This is an especially brisk style that is so attractive.
The quality of the fruit is great, with beautiful depth and clarity. The acidity is quite bright, and there is enough substance and beautiful texture on the palate to keep it balanced. Long and subtle at this stage, but the potential is huge, with a style that's really minerally and classic. 59% semillon and 41% sauvignon blanc.
Pale, translucent colour. Subtle citrus notes. Precise and persistent. Lots of lift and tension. Potential for greater complexity with a bit of bottle age. (JL)
Rich waxy, spicy nose, really leaps out of the glass at you. Great rich roundness on the palate, with lots of juicy white stone fruit, mixed peel, acacia and orange blossom. Almost ethereal, it continues to build on the palate, with a wonderful saline mineral precision following through to a finish that fans out – true peacock’s tail stuff! You can sense the quality of the fruit in this vintage, particularly the Semillon – great phenolic grip and intensity, and built for the long haul. If you can get your hands on some of this, you won’t regret it! 59% Semillon, 41% Sauvignon Blanc.
Beautifully gripping and fragrant aromatics, sage, white apricot and peach, this is a wonderful wine, aerian, lilts upwards through the palate, has tenacity but with the gentlest of grips, white roses, apple blossom, preserved citrus, precise and pretty yet with a slow build of complexity. Clear ageing ability, one of the wines of the vintage. 40% new oak Harvest September 2 to 10. 3.25ph, 38hl/h yield.
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
