Château Lafleur 'Château Grand Village' 2023 Bordeaux Blanc

750ml bottle

13% abv

Light yellow-green with silver reflections. The nose leads with white tropical fruit, lemon oil, verbena, grapefruit zest, and white peach. More fruity and dense than the 2022. On the palate, lean and taut with green apple, fine acidity, citrus, and a lemony, salty finish. 

80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Sémillon. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon parcels replanted in the early 1990s. Harvested August 26–31.

Clay-rich soils over limestone bedrock at Château Grand Village in Mouillac, Fronsac area of the Right Bank. Organically farmed. Hand-harvested with double sorting at the vineyard.

Fermented with indigenous yeasts, primarily in barrel (new and used French oak). Aged on lees with regular bâtonnage for several months.

The Grand Village Blanc is the white wine of the Guinaudeau family, the proprietors of Château Lafleur in Pomerol. The white wine program was established in the early 1990s when Sylvie and Jacques Guinaudeau replanted Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon parcels on the clay-limestone soils of Grand Village. It receives the same philosophical and practical attention as the red – organic farming, indigenous yeasts, manual harvest – and is made by the same team, including Baptiste Guinaudeau and Julie Guinaudeau, who are now increasingly leading both estates.

The blanc is significantly less well-known than the rouge and tends to be overlooked even by people who follow the domaine closely. At this price it is one of the most interesting white Bordeaux available, offering the precision and tension of the appellation's best whites with the quality control of a family that makes one of Bordeaux's most revered reds.