2020 Le C du Sec du Château Closiot Bordeaux Blanc

“Dominated by Sémillon that’s picked late, just before botrytis really takes off in the vineyards, Guffens’s 2020 Le C du Sec du Château Closiot is very promising, exhibiting inviting aromas of stone fruit, orange oil, beeswax, ripe melon, vanilla pod and nutmeg. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with racy acids, chalky structuring extract and a long, penetrating finish, it’s one of the most interesting dry wines being produced in Bordeaux today.

The inimitable Jean-Marie Guffens, a Belgian theater school graduate who created one of Burgundy’s greatest domaines in the Mâconnais, also produces white wines in Bordeaux. White Bordeaux is an unfashionable category among serious wine lovers, and it’s easy to see why: enzymed and cool-fermented in stainless steel tank and hit with high doses of sulfur dioxide, many of these wines exhibit caricatural varietal aromas of Sauvignon Blanc and questionable balance on the palate. What people forget is that this is a recent phenomenon: in the past, the great dry white wines of Bordeaux were based on Sémillon, fermented in barrel and matured on the lees. Guffens, however, hasn’t forgotten; and this vinous, characterful white demonstrates that Bordeaux can still produce wines that will interest discerning drinkers.”