Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte’s Blanc is one of the two or three finest dry white wines produced in Pessac-Léognan and consistently attracted the most extraordinary critical attention in the 2021 vintage: multiple critics described the 2021 Blanc as one of the finest single wines of the entire 2021 Bordeaux campaign across any appellation and any colour. The 2021 white wine vintage was exceptional across Pessac-Léognan, and Smith-Haut-Lafitte’s biodynamic farming and the Cathiard family’s investment in their own in-house cooperage, precise cellar management and the estate’s distinctive blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Sémillon produced a wine that multiple respected critics placed among the finest white wines they had encountered in the Bordeaux appellation. The wine’s exceptional quality in 2021 reflects both the vintage’s ideal conditions for dry white wine production and the estate’s current position at the very pinnacle of Pessac-Léognan white wine ambition, rivalling and sometimes surpassing the more historically established white wine estates of the appellation.

Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc is produced from 90% Sauvignon Blanc, with the balance made up of Sémillon and the estate’s distinctive Sauvignon Gris, whose slightly more textured and spiced character adds an aromatic dimension that distinguishes the wine from the more classically mineral Smith red wine style. The wine is aged in French oak from the estate’s own in-house cooperage, with the proportion of new wood calibrated precisely to the character of each vintage, and is typically given extended lees contact to develop the texture and mineral complexity that has become the signature of this wine’s house style over the past decade. The 2021’s natural freshness and mineral acidity from a cool, well-balanced growing season provides the ideal framework for a wine of exceptional long-term development potential.

The 2021 Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of the most critically celebrated white wine releases of the 2021 Bordeaux vintage from an estate that has positioned itself at the absolute apex of Pessac-Léognan white wine production. For collectors who follow the finest dry white wines of Bordeaux and who were unable to secure allocations directly from the estate, this represents a significant and timely acquisition.

Pale gold with a complex and aromatic nose of grapefruit, lemon cream, white peach, dried herbs, chalk mineral and the distinctive smoky Sauvignon Gris character of the estate’s biodynamic vineyards. Full-bodied with excellent natural acidity, outstanding concentration from the 2021 vintage and a very long, mineral, herb-edged finish of exceptional precision. Best from 2024 through 2038.