CHÂTEAU SMITH HAUT LAFITTE BLANC

The 2022 Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc is airy, weightless and gracious. Citrus confit, mint, white pepper and tangerine oil and a kiss of French oak are all beautifully lifted. There’s lovely richness and texture but without the opulence of most warm, dry years. The 2022 will be a gorgeous wine at the dinner table. Drinking range: 2025 - 2037 Rating: 94-96 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2023)

90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sauvignon Gris, 5% Semillon. 50% new oak. 14.5% alc. They started picking a small proportion of young vines at Smith Haut Lafitte on Thursday, the 18th of August, filling one press, but they then stopped. The fruit was not quite ripe enough, but there was panic in the region, with everyone hauling their fruit in as quickly as possible. They usually only pick their grapes when the bunches are ‘golden’, which often requires four or five passes through the vineyard. So they decided to wait four more days and then carried out two passes through the vineyards harvesting perfectly homogenous fruit in perfect condition. By the 24th and 25th, they were carrying out three presses per day, and they finished around a week later than neighbouring properties. If one picks early, the resulting flavours are raw and hard, resinous and severe, and I tasted many wines like this in 2022. But Smith Haut Lafitte harvested precisely on time and has made a true Grand Vin. This is an amazingly regal, layered and beautiful wine with incredible presence in the glass. The oak is perfectly balanced, and the finish is so dramatic and yet so delicate it takes the breath away. Dynamic, precise and with mouth-watering sea spray, lemon and patisserie tones, this is not a rich wine but a devastatingly pure wine. It manages to pack in so much intensity of flavour while remaining utterly refreshing and enticing. Rating: 19.5+ Matthew Jukes www.matthewjukes.com (May 2023)

Cask sample. Pale greenish straw. Lifted with the perfume of Sauvignon Gris (to which they were introduced long before most Bordeaux estates by Peter Vinding-Diers) standing out even though it constitutes only 5% of the blend. Flattering and floral with a certain fresh salinity on the end. Quite rich. Maybe almost too much? It certainly isn’t an aperitif. Drinking range: 2025 - 2035 Rating: 17 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2023)