2020 Chateau Suduiraut Blanc Sec Bordeaux 750 ml

You might know Château Suduiraut as one of the most iconic producers of Sauternes, France’s luxuriously rich, botrytized sweet wine. A historic estate ranked Premier Cru Classé in the 1855 classification, Suduiraut is a neighbor to Bordeaux legend Château d’Yquem.

What you may not know is that under talented winemaker Pierre Montégut, this august château is putting out one of the best Bordeaux Blanc bargains you can lay hands on—and the 2020 bottling is by all accounts their greatest ever.

“The best and most complete and satisfying example of this wine I can remember,” raved Jancis Robinson, a critic not known for superlatives. “Perhaps the best dry table wine I can remember from a Sauternes château,” she added, calling it “more delicate than many dry Pessac-Léognans.”

This cuvée, crafted from the estate’s younger vines, came about after Montégut and the winemaking team segmented the vineyards into parcels to allow for better blending and more exact delineations of terroir.

The Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes for this bottling are picked at the same time and cofermented. The wine then ages for six months, mostly in stainless-steel vats, with a quarter of it matured in 30% new oak barrels.

Montégut, who previously worked at Château Léoville Las Cases before honing his white-wine chops in Vouvray, initially wasn’t sure what to expect from the 2020 vintage. When the season started out hot and dry, he worried about drooping acidity levels, but late-summer rains and perfect harvest conditions ultimately delivered a thrilling balance of nervy vibrancy and plush weightiness.

Not only is the top-rated 2020 Blanc Sec de Suduiraut in beautiful drinking shape now, it’ll continue to mature for years to come.