2020 Chateau Saint Florin Bordeaux Blanc 750 ml

Succulent and aromatic, with a wonderful mineral streak coursing through the finish, the 2020 Château Saint Florin is the Bordeaux Blanc we’re always hoping to find when we sit down at a café off the quai in Bordeaux—and one we expect to pay about €10 per glass for when we find it. 

But here, this luscious Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon stunner—which boasts a 90-point score from Wine Enthusiast—is the same price you’d pay for a 250mL pichet in Bordeaux. Given the unrelenting price hikes on Sancerre and other French Sauvignon Blancs, bottles like this one are not to be missed.

Chateau Saint Florin is in the town of Soussac in the Entre-deux-Mers zone of Bordeaux, about a half hour drive south of Saint-Émilion. Entre-deux-Mers has been the epicenter for white wine value in Bordeaux for decades. Here on the Butte de Launay, the highest point in the Gironde region, the Jolivet family has been tending their vines for four generations, watching countless pilgrims walk by on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Jean-Marc and Catherine Jolivet have been working away at their family winery since 1981. In the last 41 years, they have thoroughly modernized the winery with temperature control and stainless steel tanks. Today they remain extremely hands-on, and their attention to detail is the reason why quality at this domain is at an all-time high.

The Jolivets’ chalky-clay soils, careful farming, and stainless-steel fermentation have given such a blossomy, fresh white to enjoy any day of the week. At this price? That is a very affordable plane ticket to the beach on the Bay of Biscay.