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2017 Bordeaux Blanc
Château DucasseSoutheast of Bordeaux, in the land of Sauternes, the modest, meticulous, and apparently ageless Hervé Dubourdieu makes both dessert and dry whites that have been among our best values for decades. This Bordeaux blanc is made from old Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle vines planted in complex soils of clay and limestone on fissured rock. The wine is bone-dry, even if your first whiff of sunny, slightly tropical fruit leads you to expect otherwise. On the palate, it is luscious and mouth-coating with generous passion fruit and lychee, and yet it is racy at the same time—constructed along a sturdy spine of chalk and acidity, it bears the classic Sauvignon Blanc notes of lime and grass. This blanc is astoundingly versatile at table. Exquisite with seafood, it is also perfect on its own. Value of the year? No. Value of the century!
—Tom Wolf
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2017 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | 60% Sémillon, 5% Muscadelle, 35% Sauvignon Blanc |
Appellation: | Bordeaux |
Country: | France |
Region: | Bordeaux |
Producer: | Château Ducasse |
Winemaker: | Hervé Dubourdieu |
Vineyard: | 45-48 years, 13 ha |
Soil: | Clay & Limestone on fissured rock |
Aging: | Wine ages in stainless steel for 6 months |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 12% |
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About The Producer
Château Ducasse
About The Region
Bordeaux
Often considered the wine capital of the world, Bordeaux and its wines have captured the minds, hearts, and wallets of wine drinkers for centuries. For many, the wines provide an inalienable benchmark against which all other wines are measured.
Bordeaux is divided into three winegrowing regions with the city that gives the region its name in the near geographical center. The “right bank,” or the area located east of the Dordogne River, produces wines that are predominantly Merlot with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The “left bank” is located to the west of the Garonne River and produces wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
The third region, Entre-Deux-Mers, lies between both rivers and produces white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle. Though technically in the left bank, it is worth noting the appellation of Sauternes, which produces arguably the world’s most famous sweet wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle as well.
Though many top Bordeaux wines are sold en primeur (in advance of their bottling) and often through a middleman known as a negoçiant, Kermit has always preferred to purchase directly from the winemaker. For more than three decades he has sought out small producers, who make classic Bordeaux wines and are willing to play outside the negoçiant system. This ethic has led to longstanding relationships, excellent prices, and perhaps most important—wines of great value and longevity.
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch