2017 Haut Brion Blanc

The 2017 Haut-Brion Blanc is just beginning to show what it can do. This is beautifully defined on the nose with Granny Smiths, orange blossom and Anjou pear, stretching its arms as it welcomes aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with a silver bead of acidity, light malic notes, cucumber and melon. This is very harmonious and poised, just a wonderful, tensile white Haut-Brion for long-term aging. Tasted blind at the château.

Composed of 56.2% Sauvignon Blanc and 43.8% Sémillon, the 2017 Blanc sashays out of the glass with gregarious notions of peach preserves, pineapple tart and orange blossoms with touches of musk perfume, candied ginger and allspice. Medium-bodied, the palate reveals a gorgeous satiny texture with amazing citrus and tropical fruit intensity and a seriously racy backbone carrying the layers to a very long, impactful finish. Give this a few more years to really flaunt its stuff, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this warrants the full three-digits. Bravo!