Score: 92/100
This white Bordeaux wine from the Graves area (South of Bordeaux, and the Pessac-Léognan zone to be precise in this instance) is made by famous producer Vignobles André Lurton.
This is a 100% Sauvignon Blanc wine, fermented and aged in French oak wine barrels.
Tasting Notes
This Graves white comes in a shiny lemon-yellow color, augmented and made shinier by a wealth of gold hues. Slightly pale, and certainly elegant a color for a wine that was vinified in barrel, but with some orange hues betraying the oak treatment.
The nose however, is anything but shy!
As soon as you stick your nose into the glass, massive aromas of boxwood, so typical of Bordeaux Sauvignon blanc, grab your senses powerfully. Big and pungent tropical notes of super-ripe mango, ripe pineapple and passion fruit literally jump out of the glass. Some white pepper, and striking cardamom notes as well. Hints of vanilla, burnt tire too (a touch of reduction).
In short, a massively fragrant aromatic profile, and a complex and layered one at that!
From there, the first impression on the palate appears almost surprisingly smooth, soft, and round. There IS a crisp and mineral acidity, bringing even further freshness to the zesty citrusy flavors. But the wine’s texture is oily and opulent, balancing the whole harmoniously despite the dryness and the marked acidity. The ripe and sweet-feeling tropical flavors of pineapple and mango help in that, giving an impression of sucrosity (slight sweetness sensation) and generous fruitiness.
This is all balanced and harmonious, until towards the finish, when the wine kicks your sense with a huge burst of boxwood and acacia leaf vegetal character, with some biting phenolics that remind you we are here with a Sauvignon Blanc, a grape that always comes with an underlying grassiness.
A rather long and layered finish, on plenty of tropical fruit, honey, sweet spices and much more. Finishing just as powerfully as it started with the first smell.
Overall
An aromatic power-bomb of a white wine.
There is so much going on in various aromatic families, from tropical, spicy, and perhaps even floral (Lilly and honey), to delicately oaky and expansively vegetal, it’s almost disconcerting, and somewhat certainly stunning. There are so many elements it is quite mind-blowing if you try to analyze them all.
Consider the whole though, and enjoy every sip simply with whatever individual element strikes you the most then, and the wine appears in fact very balanced and harmonious. More importantly, it brings a surprise flavor and a new note at every second. A good thing!
An unusual and unique tasting experience this Couhins-Lurton Blanc certainly is. One to witness for yourself for sure, to see if you enjoy it. You’ll love it or you won’t, but it won’t leave you without a solid opinion about it.
As for me, I really liked it, for what it is. Surely a distinct and rare wine.
Enjoy 🙂
Please let me know your thoughts