White Wine

The 2021 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc has a nuanced, understated bouquet with yellow plum, Anjou pear and hints of honeysuckle—very low key and tightly knit, yet very well-defined. The palate is beautifully balanced with a tangy entry and a citric bead of acidity, revealing orange rind and kaki fruit toward the finish that is full of tension. This is neck and neck with the Haut-Brion Blanc at the moment, yet may surpass it in the long-run.

The 2021 Aile d'Argent has a more Sauvignon-driven bouquet with lime flower, orange pith, a hint of grapefruit and gooseberry. The palate is well-balanced with a spicy entry, just a hint of ginger, well-balanced with a saline finish. This is absolutely delicious.

The 2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc was one of the best wines that I tasted, white or red, during en primeur. Now in bottle, it has a captivating bouquet of mineral-rich citrus fruit that represents one of the most complex I have encountered in any vintage. The palate is well-balanced with a beautiful line of acidity and a slightly resinous texture, very complex and intense on the finish that lingers in the mouth. What a fabulous dry white Bordeaux this will become.

As usual, Molitor’s exclusively small-barrel-raised “three-star” Pinot Blanc introduces some overt notes of oak on the nose and slight stiffening and drying to this variety’s usual engaging combination of textural creaminess with refreshment. But it still harbors plenty of interest. Musky suggestions of narcissus mingle with scents of corn shoots, lime peel and bruised apple skin. Fuller than its two ostensibly lesser counterparts but by no means heavy, this offers a cooling midpalate suggestion of mint-laced apple and lime sorbet, leading to a lingering if slightly woody finish enhanced by saliva-inducing salinity.

From the uppermost of Hühnerberg’s three broad terraces, this one-star Spätlese leads delightfully with ripe white peach and mirabelle garlanded in diverse flowers, including the orange blossoms that Müllen considers typical of wines from that terrace. The delicate, tender, polished midpalate adds a hint of raw almond, leading to a lusciously lingering finish admirably transparent to shimmering wet stone as well as mouthwateringly mingled with mineral salts. Here’s one Müllen 2018 that I don’t have any worries about recommending for extended cellaring. Amusingly, he says it is one of several wines that he wanted to go dry – but I’m happy that it had other ideas. The situation was actually unusual, as Müllen related: “By late February or early March it seemed that this just didn’t want to ferment any further. But I thought, maybe if I just give it some time… So it lay nearly five months on the lees, naturally without SO2, but it never budged. And when I detected a slight hint of oxidation in the wine as sampled from the top of the cask, I knew which way its full contents were headed and that it was time to bottle.” Why award this wine just a single star? I can only conclude that Müllen doesn’t quite share my high opinion of it.