White Wines

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Cut grass, dark green herbs and yellow apple aromas show on the nose of this bottling. It’s very lean on the palate with a zippy, energetic acidity that cuts right through the cement, crushed stone and serrano flavors, engaging the palate on all sides.Wine Enthusiast | 93 WEThe 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Au Naturel is laced with hints of pear, mint, chamomile, spice and apricot. Racy and textured in feel, the Au Naturel has plenty of richness to play off the natural vivacity of the year.Antonio Galloni | 92 AGAll varietal, the 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Au Naturel offers a touch more oomph in its white peach, melon, white flowers, and honeysuckle-like aromas and flavors. It’s rich, medium-bodied, balanced, and certainly an outstanding expression of Sauvignon Blanc.Jeb Dunnuck | 91 JD

The 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Quarz is deeply alluring, with a rich mix of savory herbs and grapefruit rinds lifted by a cooling whiff of white smoke. This is potent and supple with medium-bodied weight and a pretty inner sweetness, verging on decadence, yet is balanced by a stimulating core of zesty acidity. Candied lemon and lime resonate throughout as a burst of salty minerality and chalk dust adds perfect contrast. Like most vintages of Quarz, this will cellar beautifully over the medium term. That said, there’s no harm in enjoying it now in this wonderfully primary state.Vinous Media | 93 VM

The 2021 vintage of Cape Mentelle Sauvignon Blanc includes 9% Semillon in a blend that is commonly found in Margaret River. Vibrant and piercing aromas are on display with impressive complexity including passionfruit, freshly cut grass, lanolin and hay. Exceptional purity follows on a light weight palate with juicy acidity providing energy and tropical fruit flavour impact. The finish is zesty and refreshing with impressive focus from start to finish.Vinous Media | 92 VM

Some buttery notes emerge under the delicate lemony characters, giving depth and seamless balance to the zingy acidity. It should develop additional complexity with more time in bottle. Montée de Bouffant is a parcel on steep slopes at 240m above the village of Chavignol. The grapes are harvested by machine and fermented in a mix of concrete and stainless steel and then aged for six months. The first record of the 35-hectare domaine is from 1510 and Laurent Reverdy, who took over from his father Alain in 2000, is the 14th generation.Decanter | 93 DEC

The Menetou-Salon from Kevin and Karine Lauverjat is a fine bottle that really shows the bright, cooler vintage characteristics of 2021. The bouquet offers up a complex blend of limepeel, gooseberry, fresh-cut grass, a lovely base of flinty minerality and a topnote of citrus blossoms. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied, complex and nicely grassy in personality, with a lovely core of fruit, fine soil signature, a good spine of acidity and impressive length and grip on the well-balanced finish. Good juice. (Drink between 2023 - 2030)John Gilman | 91 JG

This is a really serious white. Vibrant and tangy with fantastic energy. Plenty of lime zest, pineapple, crushed stone, cedar, anise and white lavender. Grapefruit, too. Medium body. So much tension at the end. Focused and precise and it just keeps on going. The pH is 3.04, yet it has intense ripeness. A masterpiece of sauvignon blanc. The chateau says it is the best Pavillon Blanc ever. 100% sauvignon blanc.James Suckling | 99-100 JSWhile the red gets all the love at this heralded address, don’t miss their white, which has hit incredible heights over the past 7-8 years. Coming from a selection of 52% of the production and all Sauvignon Blanc, the 2021 Blanc De Margaux offers a vivid perfume of white grapefruits, salted citrus, and honeyed minerality. This carries to a medium-bodied, vibrant, vivid white with bright yet integrated acidity, plenty of mid-palate concentration, and a great finish. It needs 2-3 years of bottle age, but it’s a brilliant wine in the making.Jeb Dunnuck | 95-97 JDGorgeous peach tone on the nose, with bright lemon, clementine, green apple skin and crushed stones too. Super sharp and fresh straight out the gate, this is searing, focussed and neat with a shot of lemon juice, so zingy on the mid palate giving a green apple and peach freshness towards the end. Fruity and extremely lively. It has an unctuous texture, not weighty but delectably textured with a silkiness. You have the acidity but also the opulence, it’s both sharp and immensely layered. A joyful combination of freshness and power - supremely impressive with vibrancy and mass appeal.Decanter | 97 DECThe 2021 Pavillon Blanc du Chateau Margaux sings of lemongrass, lime leaves, orange blossoms, and sea spray, followed by nuances of elderflowers and paraffin wax. The light to medium-bodied palate delivers super-intense notes of tightly wound citrus and mineral layers coupled with a racy backbone and incredible length. This should age very well!the Wine Independent | 96+ TWIThe 2021 Pavillon Blanc is stellar. Vibrant and chiseled, with fine depth, the 2021 impresses with its total sense of harmony. Lemon peel, mint, white flowers, crushed rocks and a kiss of French oak are all finely delineated. All this needs is a few years in bottle to shine.Vinous Media | 95 VMThe wine, as always, shows a tropical side of Sauvignon Blanc. Having said that, the wine also has the purity of mineral acidity and citrus freshness. Wood aging has softened the intensity of the fruit and rounded out the wine. Drink from 2026.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEThe 2021 Pavillon Blanc is likely to be remembered as a reference-point vintage for the new racy, incisive style that Château Margaux has favored with this cuvée for several years now. Wafting from the glass with notes of lime, pink grapefruit and pear mingled with white flowers, green almond and mint, it’s medium-bodied, bright and racy, with tangy acids and a penetrating, saline finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RP

This is spiced and citrusy with sliced pears, lime peel, savory herbs and raw almonds. Medium- to full-bodied, juicy and crunchy with tense, phenolic character. Steady and vivid acidity. Lengthy and mineral with a creamy finish. Drink now.James Suckling | 94 JSThe 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Piere is a spice bomb, holding my attention firm with a blast of ground ginger, cardamom, flint stone and curry before arriving at dried nectarines. It’s luxuriously silky yet lifted in style, with cooling minerality and acidity that motivates its floral-laced green citrus and melon tones. For all of its intensity, the 2021 finishes crisp and with a classically dry feel, as savory herbal tones resonate on. There is so much pleasure in this upfront, fruit-focused, yet truly seductive Sauvignon.Vinous Media | 92 VMLet this compact white open in the glass to reveal a fine, creamy range of apricot tarte, graphite, passion fruit coulis and Mediterranean scrub aromas and flavors, all underscored by a rich vein of smoky minerality. Racy, spiced finish. Best from 2024 through 2029. 600 cases made, 200 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

With a salty, beeswax-like richness up front, there’s honey and white spice amidst the lime blossom, grapefruit and passionfruit notes that make up the core fruit flavors. They’re backlit by tomato leaf and green-herbal nuances. The palate has lovely depth and a slippery textural component that’s lifted by crunchy acidity and a herb-flecked finish.Wine Enthusiast | 92 WEThis intense and aromatic Wairau Valley–sourced 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve packs plenty of concentration in its punchy core. While round and fruity, bursting with passionfruit, snow pea, elderflower and lemongrass flavors, there’s a bright citrusy character with a line of tension drawing this out on the medium-length finish. There’s a lot of wine here, showing yet again that 2021 is a excellent year for quality Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough.Vinous Media | 91 VMMouthwatering and vibrant, with a note of salted melon, peach, mango and dried ginger on a juicy, succulent frame, showing plenty of intensity on the finish. Drink now. 19,000 cases made, 1,500 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 90 WS