2023 Chateau Lestage La Mouette Blanc Sec Bordeaux 750 ml

Sixty years ago, white grapes were a Bordeaux staple, making up over 50% of the region’s production. Then growers decided to pull them out in favor of the more in-demand, frost-hardy Cabernet and Merlot. 

The 2023 La Mouette might’ve had those growers second-guessing. 

“La Mouette comes across more like a Premier Cru Chablis,” said Decanter in their 94-point review. It’s aromatically effusive, with lemon, chalk, vanilla, key lime pie, and toasted honey. The palate shows the opulence and tropical fruit notes of Sémillion, balanced by the acidity and minerality of Sauvignon Blanc. It’s so immediately satisfying that we knew we had to grab the only stateside pallet for our club members. 

Château Lestage straddles the boundary between the Listrac and Moulis communes, on the plateau of Puy de Menjon, the highest point in the Médoc. It’s cooler than other areas, with the Left Bank’s famed gravel soils on top, flanked by slopes of clay-limestone like you’d find across the Gironde. Lestage’s owners, the Chanfreau family, planted just over an acre of Sémillion and Sauvignon Blanc on those slopes to honor the white grapes once rooted there. Handpicked from those vines, La Mouette aged on the fine lees with regular bâtonnage to develop its rich texture. 

This kind of dry white wine excellence has been cropping up in pockets around the Médoc—but it doesn’t have an official AOC yet, so it’s bottled as Bordeaux Blanc. Regardless, the Médoc has been showing immense white-wine promise, especially considering the dry white wines crafted by multiple First Growths.

Château Lestage didn’t need to go searching for an ideal Bordeaux Blanc terroir. They were already sitting on it, and La Mouette proves it.