Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Pessac-Léognan, White Wines

The Pessac-Léognan appellation is quite large, with many estates, and complicated by the fact many of the top estates also produce a white wine. I have also included below notes on one or two wines from Graves, and as a consequence there are a lot of notes further down the page. For this reason it is not possible to go through every wine, white or red, in detail. I have already made clear my feelings that this is a very good but not a truly ‘great’ vintage for the white wines, nevertheless, one or two of the whites deserve further mention.

First up, Château Olivier, where picking tends to start early (often the earliest in the Pessac-Léognan appellation) and the style of the white wine is therefore usually grassy and green; this year, however, the fruit is obviously riper, and I like the new style much more than the old. Without having visited the château this year I am not sure what has driven this change, but I hope it is a style that we see continued in future vintages. Also in white, there were strong performances from Château Brown, Domaine de Chevalier, Château Pape-Clément and Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte, so all the usual suspects then.

At much the same level, however, there were also good white wines from Château Malartic-Lagravière, Château Latour-Martillac, Clos Marsalette and Château Larrivet-Haut-Brion. The penultimate wine in the list is part of the Neipperg portfolio, and the style is – much like the reds – richly flavoured. The last in the list, however, is a real under-the-radar domaine; it was not listed in the Pessac-Léognan classification, but is located just down the road from Château Haut-Bailly and it seems to have a track record of turning out decent reds (I’m slowly working my way through a case of the 2000 which I bought at auction for a song, with no regrets as to the purchase) and also some surprisingly appealing white wines in more recent vintages.

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