Château La Tour Blanche Sauternes 2013 - 1er Cru Classé

Bettane & Desseauve

About the wine:

Refinement and power in a balance of great style and exemplary value for money. 2023-2043

About the domain :

The château has belonged to the French state since 1909, and is now home to a vocational agricultural and viticultural high school. The Republic's school of viticulture is thus looking after its most precious jewel, and its renewed technical team has further refined the vinifications, with wines that make it easy to understand why, in 1855, the cru topped the list of premier crus classés. If you get the chance, ask to taste the confidential cuvée de muscadelle, with its strange and magnificent perfume.

Decanter

About the wine:

Founded by Jean St-Marc du Latourblanche, the estate was donated to the French government in 1909, on condition that a wine school be established there. Thus was born the École de Viticulture et d'Œnologie de La Tour Blanche. The estate covers around 40 hectares, planted mainly with Semillon (83%), complemented by Sauvignon Blanc (12%) and Muscadelle (5%). La Tour Blanche wines are renowned for their richness and smoothness. Stephen Brook: Fine apricot nose, with great purity of fruit and well-integrated oak. Lively and precise, very sweet, but with a balanced acidity that gives it surprising vivacity. Not a particularly voluptuous style, and the fruit is slightly candied, but this is an elegant, delicious wine. Sebastian Payne MW: A Sauternes of discreet assurance, with a lovely creaminess on the palate. A rather discreet wine, but with good ageing potential and immense pleasure. Xavier Rousset MS: Elegant, with very fine fruit and good structure. The oak is perfectly mastered, which shows in the long, complex palate. Really enjoyable. 2016-2040

Guide Hachette des vins

About the wine:

Behind an astonishing straw color with green highlights, the fine, airy bouquet unfurls fresh nuances of white fruit (white peach, pear), citrus and stewed apricot. This exuberant, complex fruitiness, still marked by candied pear and apricot, blossoms with intensity and elegance in a full, remarkably well-balanced palate, invigorated by a long, fresh finish. All the harmony and distinction of great Sauternes.

About the domain :

One might think that the cru's name comes from the white tower (formerly a dovecote) on the estate. In reality, it derives from the name of a former owner, Monsieur de Latourblanche, Treasurer General to Louis XVI. Bequeathed to the State in 1909 by the patron Daniel Iffla, known as Osiris, this classified growth is also a viticultural high school, where future professionals find a fine training ground (42 ha of vines) to learn about the subtleties of Botrytis cinerea. Philippe Pelicano is in charge of the winery.

RVF - La Revue du Vin de France / Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France

About the wine:

A delicate nose and a lovely acidic sensation. A pleasant dynamic despite the liqueur. The wine evolves on a note of tangerine. Fine and long, with a hint of gunflint.

About the domain :

This premier cru classé de Bommes, donated to the French state in 1911 by its former owner Daniel Iffa, is now managed by the Aquitaine Regional Council. Now a school of viticulture, the château has trained celebrities such as oenologist Michel Rolland and winemaker Mark Angeli. Over the past twenty years, La Tour Blanche has consistently produced accomplished, harmonious, nobly bouqueted Sauternes. Their very high residual sugar content gives them no heaviness, as on this terroir noble rot concentrates sugars while preserving an airy taste form. Since 2016, Miguel Aguirre has been at the helm of the vineyard, under whose impetus it has officially become an organic winegrower (first wines to be certified in 2023). Philippe Pélicano, an alumnus of the Lycée, is in charge of vinification.

Le Figaro vins

About the wine:

The color is straw and the nose rather strict. The palate is dense, fairly tight, with good length and very fine liqueur. A great success for Tour Blanche in its easily recognizable style.

Yves Beck

About the wine:

Golden yellow. Complex, slightly reduced bouquet. Notes of toast, spices, dried herbs. (Thyme). Pleasant, precise, dense attack. The wine is creamy, with structure and bitterness to back it up. A great wine that doesn't yet want to show what it's capable of, but shows promise for the future. Wait for it. 2023-2053