Reviews
-Jeb Dunnuck -
-James Suckling -
-Wine Spectator -
-Wine Enthusiast -
-Decanter -
-Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -
Technical Details
- 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 33% Sémillon, 4% Sauvignon Gris and 1% Muscadelle
- Bernard Magrez with Michel Rolland
- France
- Bordeaux
- Graves
- Pessac-Léognan
- Estate vineyard with 7 hectares of white grapes, averaging 22 of age
- Sustainable practices with HVE3 (High Environmental Value Level 3), Terra Vitis, ISO 14001, and Bee-Friendly environmental certifications
- 15% egg-shaped concrete vats and 85% French oak barrels
- Whole-cluster pressing in an inert atmosphere to avoid oxidation and preserve aromatics. Gravity flow to fermentation in French oak barrels and egg-shaped concrete vats. Maturation on fine lees with periodic stirring (bâtonnage).
- 15% egg-shaped concrete vats and 85% French oak barrels
- 13%
Château Pape Clément Blanc Pessac-Léognan 2020
Sustainable practices with HVE3 (High Environmental Value Level 3), Terra Vitis, ISO 14001, and Bee-Friendly environmental certifications
30% OFF RETAIL!
Only 6 bottles remain of the Château Pape Clément Blanc Pessac-Léognan 2020, a wine that earned 100 points from Jeb Dunnuck and is now $139.95, down from $200. The estate has been guided into today’s era by Bernard Magrez, who has managed it since 1985. Its name goes back much further, to Pope Clement V, the 14th-century pope who moved the papacy to Avignon. The property in Pessac, the Vineyard de La Mothe, came to him as a gift, which makes this one of Bordeaux’s oldest names. The white is a rarity there, with only about 45 acres of the grounds given to the white varieties.
The 2020 clocks in at 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 33% Sémillon, 4% Sauvignon Gris, and 1% Muscadelle, aged in a mix of new and used oak, with fruit from separately managed micro-plots on the estate’s clay-gravel terroir. Dunnuck called it one of the whites of the vintage, and it was one of just two 2020 white Bordeaux to earn a perfect score from him. It opens with honeyed lime, ripe nectarine, white blossom, and a drizzle of orange marmalade, with crushed stone and a faint toasty, almost brioche warmth underneath. The texture is silky and layered, with white peach and pear carried on a stony, salty zipper of minerality. Fresh acidity keeps all that richness lifted rather than heavy, and the finish lingers with lemongrass, ginger, and garden herbs. A showpiece for Bordeaux Blanc, for certain, and an age-worthy white for any collection!