Bordeaux 2020 at Two Years: Pessac-Léognan, White
The wines of Bordeaux, specifically of Pessac-Léognan, were the first of this vintage to pass my lips when reviewing wines for this in-bottle tasting report. When I wrote in my introduction that my first appointment was at Château La Mission Haut-Brion, for a tasting of the Domaine Clarence Dillon wines (so including the wines of Château Haut-Brion, but unlike last year no Clarendelle cuvées – don’t know why) I wasn’t fibbing.
Well, in truth it turns out it was. I am embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten that I first went hammering on the gates of Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion at 08h30, half an hour before I popped round to see Prince Robert and his gang. Here I was welcomed by technical director, biodynamic guru, amphore adherent and bunch-fermentation fiend Guillaume Pouthier. But let’s not allow the facts to get in the way of a good story. Besides, this is a report exclusively on the whites of the appellation, and Guillaume doesn’t make a white wine. Not at the moment, anyway.
So I (sort of) started at Château La Mission Haut-Brion before trekking vaguely southwards, subsequently calling in at Château Haut-Bailly (another property with no whites), Domaine de Chevalier (no shortage of whites here), Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte (ditto) and one or two other properties, before I finally left Pessac-Léognan behind and headed even further south, for Sauternes. Where my usual sequence of appointments had been reduced to just one – but that’s a story for my Sauternes report.
Right. With the necessary admissions and confessions done, lets get on with the white wines of Pessac-Léognan.
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