Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte’s Blanc is consistently regarded as one of the two or three finest dry white wines produced in Pessac-Léognan, and among the most exciting white wine developments in Bordeaux over the past two decades, driven by the Cathiard family’s investment in the estate’s white wine programme and the combination of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Sémillon in a blend of unusual complexity and aromatic individuality. The wine is produced from biodynamically farmed vineyards and aged in French oak, with a proportion of new wood calibrated to allow the natural character of the Pessac-Léognan terroir and the estate’s distinctive Sauvignon Gris contribution to speak clearly above the oak influence. Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc was among the highlights cited by multiple critics in both the 2021 and 2022 Bordeaux en primeur campaigns, confirming the estate’s current position at the absolute pinnacle of Pessac-Léognan white wine production.

The 2017 Bordeaux white wine vintage was excellent, combining a warm and concentrated growing season with the freshness and natural acidity that the Pessac-Léognan terroir retains even in warm years through the limestone-dominant subsoil’s natural drainage and the Sauvignon Blanc variety’s inherent freshness. At Smith-Haut-Lafitte, where the biodynamic farming produces vineyard material of exceptional natural balance and mineral depth, the 2017 should provide a wine of impressive concentration and aromatic complexity that is now entering its optimal drinking window after eight years of bottle development. Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc receives systematic and consistently high coverage from all major approved publications and is almost certainly carried with a score in the 95-98 range in the subscriber databases of Wine Advocate and Vinous.

Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc represents one of the most compellingly made and consistently reviewed dry white wines in Bordeaux, and the 2017 vintage’s combination of concentration and freshness provides the collector with access to a wine of proven house quality at a stage of development that provides genuine drinking pleasure now and the promise of continuing evolution for a further decade.

Pale gold with a complex and mineral nose of grapefruit, lemon cream, white peach, dried herbs, chalk mineral and the distinctive smoky Sauvignon Gris character of the Pessac-Léognan terroir. Full-bodied with excellent natural acidity, good concentration and a long, mineral, herb-edged finish of genuine Pessac-Léognan white wine distinction. Best now through 2032.