2018 Aile d`Argent (Bordeaux Blanc)

This is a delicious wine that has been extremely well handled with complexity and a long drawn out finish. It’s wonderfully fresh with touches of aniseed and flint alongside citrus and sweet pear flesh alongside an underlying spice doing a great job of providing focus and lift. To maintain freshness, no malolactic fermentation was carried out on any of the white grapes this year – in most years Aile d`Argent has maybe 10% malo, and no Muscadelle was used as it didn`t succeed as well as they`d hoped in the dry summer. The harvest took place between 30 August 30 and 5 September. 93 points

55% Sauvignon Blanc, 45% Sémillon. A touch cloudy. Complex and rich on the nose, there`s oak`s cedary spice but also an impressive depth of fruit, citrus and ripe pear. A definite tannin structure here, not particularly rich on the palate but well-structured and long. Sour grapefruit on the palate brings freshness. Longer than it is deep but harmonious. Spicy and quite tannic on the finish and that very slight tannic friction increases the freshness overall. The power is in the length rather than in the depth on the mid palate. 17 points

There was no malolactic fermentation and no Muscadelle this year—both unusual for Aile d’Argent. Composed of 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Sémillon (harvested August 30 to September 5), the 2018 Aile d`Argent has 13% alcohol and is a little reticent to begin, offering fragrant notions of lemongrass, freshly chopped ginger and lemon tart with a core of fresh pineapples, white peaches and aniseed. The palate is rich, sultry and exotic with loads of spices and tropical fruit and an electric backbone of acid, finishing very long. 93-95 points

The 2018 Aile d`Argent is laced with pineapple, tangerine, white flowers, mint and lemon confit. There is good up front depth and creaminess, but the wine loses some of its initial richness on the mid-palate and finish. Ultimately, the 2018 comes across as a bit heavy. The blend is 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Sémillon. 87-89 points

A blend of 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Semillon, a portion of which goes through malolactic fermentation. A complex nose, showing ripe and rather tropical fruits on one side, mango, peach and lychee, but there is a confident mineral dusting to it as well, some lifted notes of leafy freshness, like sage and mint, as well as a faint wrapping of vanillin oak. The palate is fresh, polished, elegant, supple, rather softly composed, with a broad and rather weighty substance. Those sage and vanilla notes provide the interest, and even though it has gone through malolactic it has held onto some of its acidity. It feels charming, fresh, supple, showing a lovely character, with a gentle acidity which is fine for the vintage. Pithy and firm in the finish. As always, no shortage of phenolic interest here, it is just the frame of acidity I would like to see a little more of. But that`s not unusual in this vintage. 91-93 points