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Wine Description
The Story
Each Château has its own style. What would be, according to you, the specificities of Château Smith Haut Lafitte White?
About our style, I would say that either you love our wines or you hate them. But be careful, if you do love them, it is for life… Our style is quite special, even paradoxical.
We have 90% of Sauvignon Blanc in our blend, however this proportion is almost unidentifiable on a blind tasting because of the age of our vines, the slopes ploughed by horses for more than 14 years on which they grow, the north exposure and all these details producing late maturity that will give our wines expression and complexity.
We also have a secret weapon: 5% of Sauvignon Gris. This forgotten yet complex grape variety brings different levels of aromas: first grapefruit, then peach, apricot and flowers, and a fresh minerality at the end. This kind of grape variety helps as well the wine age beautifully, adding spicy notes on the finish.
Which vintage of your Château white wine do you prefer?
This question is indeed very difficult... We often think that the latest babies are the best... If you ask my husband Daniel, he will choose 2010 and 2011, sharp as diamonds, of great precision, with high levels of acidity and freshness, very pure fruits, faithful to our terroir of Günzian Gravel... If you ask me, I prefer 2000, 2005 and 2009, because these vintages have a rare structure with great density and roundness in the palate. On blind tastings, almost nobody can recognize its 90% of Sauvignon Blanc. I find very interesting to compare our Château Smith Haut Lafitte white with a carafe of Bâtard-Montrachet of the same vintage for instance. The 2009 is very promising; it has a lot of everything and nothing of excess…
Vintage 2020
À Bordeaux, la chaleur a entraîné une floraison précoce. En outre, cela a conduit à une récolte précoce après un été très chaud. Comme point de départ, il y a une grande maturité dans les raisins, et on peut s’attendre à un millésime plus opulent que ces dernières années.
L’été de cette année a été le plus chaud depuis 1959, mais la pluie est tombée au bon moment pendant la saison de croissance. Les vendanges ont eu lieu deux semaines avant la norme et donneront des raisins à fort potentiel d’alcool et à l’acidité la plus faible depuis le millésime 2003. Comme on dit à Bordeaux : « Ce fut une bonne et extrême saison de croissance qui, espérons-le, produit aussi de grands vins ».
