White and Rosé Wines for Spring

wines

Much more Semillon-based compared to its stablemate, the Haut-Brion Blanc, the 2019 Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc is 70% Semillon and 30% Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a much more subdued, classic Semillon, offering ripe peach, honeyed lime, sappy herbs, and chalky mineral nuances that show even more on the palate. Rich, layered, and medium to full-bodied, it’s another blockbuster of a white from this estate that has everything you could want from a Bordeaux Blanc. It opens up beautifully with time in the glass, is flawlessly balanced, and just a thrill a second. It should evolve for 20-30 years as well.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDGreen apple, lime, aniseed and stone. Some green mango, too. Full-to medium-bodied with a compact palate of beautiful fruit and refined phenolics that last for minutes. Creamy finish. Tight at the end. Needs four or five years to open. Best after 2026.James Suckling | 98 JSThe 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, 69.9% Semillon and 30.1% Sauvignon Blanc, is locked tight on the nose to begin, eventually offering glimpses at lime leaves and sea spray with wafts of white pepper and dill seed. Medium-bodied, the palate has plenty of tension and mineral layers, finishing savory.The Wine Independent | 97 TWIThe La Mission Haut-Brion 2019 Blanc is composed of 69.9% Semillon and 30.1% Sauvignon Blanc, harvested from the 30th of August until the 10th of September. The estimated label alcohol degree is 14%. Notions of freshly squeezed limes, grapefruit juice and white peaches come wafting out of the glass followed by suggestions of yuzu zest, coriander seed, underripe pineapple, wet pebbles and green mango with a touch of fennel. The medium to full-bodied palate offers layer upon layer of citrus fruits and mineral accents wrapped in a beautiful satiny texture and featuring seamless freshness, finishing long and chalky.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94-96 RPThe 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc has quite an intense nose with apple blossom, flint and slice Williams pear scents that develop with aeration. The palate is well-balanced with fine acidity, quite steely with a gooseberry and spicy finish that is driven by the Sauvignon Blanc. It’s backward and close but the breeding is there. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.Vinous Media | 94+ VMExtroverted, with an energetic display of white peach, Key lime, verbena, oyster shell and quinine notes that are well-defined as they extend through a lengthy finish. Features real tension and drive too, which most whites in this vintage lack. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. Best from 2023 through 2033.Wine Spectator | 94 WSWet wool, something a little bit waxy to the nose with touches of lemon curd - very welcoming. Lovely mouthfeel here, enveloping, rich and concentrated but also fresh and vibrant. Nuance and structure with a spicy almost bitter orange tone to this. A great balance of bright lemon citrus fruits - juicy and lively then with a creminess that comes in and calms everything down. I love the interplay between the richness and fat from the Semillon and precise intensity of the acidity from the Sauvignon. 69.9% Semillon and 30.1% Sauvignon Blanc.Decanter | 94 DEC

The 2019 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru needed a little encouragement from the glass. Eventually it reveals captivating scents of honeysuckle, petrichor and pressed yellow flowers, an underlying spiciness that comes through with aeration. The palate has a beguiling symmetry from the start: a killer line of acidity counterbalancing the intensity of this Chevalier, gentle grip towards the spicy and "flowing" finish. Everything you could really want in a Chevalier-Montrachet Closure: Diam 30Vinous Media | 98 VMThis is produced from Leflaive’s three parcels of Chevalier that total more than 1.8ha in the centre of the appellation. Most of the vines run from the top to the bottom of the vineyard to give a wine of regal balance. The grapes are lightly crushed and slowly pressed before fermentation in cask (25% new). The 2019 vintage delivered a wine of impressive concentration and freshness with a pronounced minerality yet the density and richness to carry it to a spectacular finish. The combination of finesse and power in this wine is truly striking.Decanter | 98 DECLeflaive’s 2019 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with scents of Anjou pear, orange oil, clear honey, white flowers and freshly baked bread, framed by a deft touch of youthful reduction. Full-bodied, concentrated and incisive, it’s textural but taut, its satiny attack segueing into a deep, chiseled mid-palate, concluding with a long, electric finish. This is a brilliant Chevalier with a long life ahead of it.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97+ RPThis is even more aromatically elegant with its intensely floral-suffused aromas that include acacia, lavender and rose petal along with an array of white fleshed fruit, spice and subtle wood influence. The cool, intense and precise large-scaled flavors brim with both sappy dry extract and minerality, all wrapped in a tightly coiled, linear and remarkably persistent finish. This is incredibly promising and very clearly built-to-age.Burghound | 96-98 BHA concentrated white, this features vanilla, butter pastry, peach, hazelnut cream and apple flavors. Concise and bracing yet balanced, this should come together nicely in a year or two. Ends with a mineral flourish and a tactile sensation. Best from 2024 through 2030. 95 cases made, 19 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 95 WS

Enormously complex nose that marries so many flinty, savory and citrus aromas. Astonishing texture on the rich but precisely delineated palate, the concentration creeping up on you, building and building to a great crescendo. Enormously mineral aftertaste. Drinkable now, but best from 2023.James Suckling | 98 JSThis is also aromatically cool and restrained with its combination of essence of white orchard fruit, especially pear, along with hints of wood, spice, mineral reduction and rose petal. There is excellent intensity to the textured, concentrated and quite powerful big-bodied flavors that exude evident minerality on the focused finish that is quite tightly wound. This is going to need at least 6 to 8 years of bottle age first.Burghound | 93 BHThe 2019 Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Grand Cru opens in the glass with notes of crisp orchard fruit, white flowers, orange oil, almond paste, pineapple and fresh pastry. Full-bodied, satiny and textural, it’s rich and expressive, with lively acids and a charming, demonstrative personality.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91-93 RP