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Floral and complex, the 2024 Blanc from Smith Haut Lafitte offers up aromas of white peach, apricot, spices and spring blossoms. Medium-bodied, round and layered, it's sappy and seamless with an incisive mid-palate and a long, ethereal and refreshing finish. Matured in 50% new oak, this blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sémillon and 5% Sauvignon Gris represents a strong effort.
Floral and complex, the 2024 Blanc from Smith Haut Lafitte offers up aromas of white peach, apricot, spices and spring blossoms. Medium-bodied, round and layered, it's sappy and seamless with an incisive mid-palate and a long, ethereal and refreshing finish. Matured in 50% new oak, this blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sémillon and 5% Sauvignon Gris represents a strong effort.
Minerals, smoke, tarragon and bright lemons on the nose. An almost full-bodied, textured white that delivers lots of freshness, weight and brightness on the palate. There is attractive salinity at the end before a long yet broad finish. 90% sauvignon blanc, 5% semillon and 5% sauvignon gris.
As close to perfection as I can remember, this is a spectacular Grand Vin, with super complex flavours and a mid-palate, followed by the length of finish that is nothing short of sensational. This is also a shockingly delicious wine in a world context. The detailed perfume, heavenly texture and finely tuned balance conspire to make this a breathtaking creation. It already seems to have found a near-perfect equilibrium, but it is likely to evolve further for a decade and perhaps two. The crystalline purity underpinning the staggeringly complex citrus, ginger, and patisserie notes is incredible, and the finish is 15 minutes long. While there are a number of incredibly pretty white wines in this vintage, SHL is the one that made the biggest impression on my taste memory.
Aromatically subtle and refined with a handsome depth of fruit. Beautiful texture, the fruit ripe and dense. Needs a little coaxing but the fruit is plush and zesty. Clean, long finish. (JL)
A gorgeous aromatic blossom of white peaches, peach pit, sage, apple blossom, soft clove and white truffle spices, gentle lift through the palate, a wonderfully fragrant, generous but finessed Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc, with so much depth and length. 50% new oak for ageing, harvest August 29 to September 13, 3.2ph. Energy maintained through the palate, up there with one of the whites of the vintage.
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.
