2014 Chateau Peybonhomme-Les-Tours Côtes de Blaye Le Blanc

The 2014 Le Blanc Bonhomme is a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc drawn from a 2-hectare, biodynamic vineyard close to the banks of the Gironde River. Guillaume Hubert's grounded, vineyard-focused approach results in a vibrant, unworked and racy white whose crunchy freshness and juicy texture reflects its limestone soils more transparently than anything we have come to expect of white Bordeaux. The grapes are handpicked, manually sorted and undergo a 24-hour carbonic period before being pressed into concrete vats. Here it completes its fermentation, carried out by indigenous yeasts only. In other words, it's a mould-breaking white Bordeaux, and just to be sure no one misses the point, the family bottle it in a Burgundy-shaped vessel. Vibrating with 2014's stony freshness, it's a crunchy, racy white with mouth-watering lemon pith, fresh herbs and some white floral notes, closing with some gentle phenolic bite.

Le Blanc by Château Peybonhomme-Les-Tours stands out thanks to the depth of its colour, nose and flavour. A bright and slightly buttery yellow appearance, with a nose offering up both the exoticism of pineapple and the smoothness of acacia. On the palate it reveals a surprising richness from the very ripe Semillon, together with liveliness in the mid-palate from the pure and clean Sauvignon. It lingers remarkably in the finish and leaves an impact.