▴ Virginie de Valandraud Blanc 2016
Virginie de Valandraud Blanc 2016
On the same day that Jane and I discussed, on The Wine Conversation’s “10-Minute Masterclass on Pomerol,” the news that Jean-Luc Thunevin is making white wine in Pomerol, I was served his Virginine de Valandraud Blanc at dinner with the Commanderie de Bordeaux in Edinburgh, which turned out to be a happy coincidence. Jean-Luc, the well-known garagiste, is now growing white grapes in a vineyard close to Château Valandraud in Saint Emilion, and quite successfully. This is a cracker of a wine, which literally stopped me in my tracks, with an explosion of intense fruit, like the tension of a tight-rope walk. The blend is Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, with the Semillon adding honey notes to the flinty, citric Sauvignon core. It has the precision of a metronome--you can count the steady beat of the wave upon wave of seemingly never-ending fruit.
Review March 23, SK