Gérard Bertrand : Château L'Hospitalet "Grand Vin" 2021

The wine has a pale color with lemon highlights. It is limpid and bright. The nose is mineral, with notes of flint and refined minerality, along with fine touches of roasted white peach, vanilla pod, and baked apple. You also get fresh, crisp, juicy fruit with lemon, pear, and a few sweet spices that further add complexity to the tasting. The palate is round and fresh, with tension and aromatic breadth. There is a tangy structure with a lovely velvety mouthfeel. Notes of roasted yellow peach, juicy apricot, and yellow apple come through, together with sweet spices, toasted coconut, toast, vanilla cream, and white pepper. This is a gourmet, gastronomic, powerful wine that leaves its mark in a long finish on wood and fruit.

This attractive, elegant white blend doesn't need to impress you, but it will. It has a perfumed nose of bruised golden apple, honey, toasted almond, vanilla baking spice and shaved nutmeg. Fall-ripened orchard fruit and Bosc pear hug lightly toasted oak in a restrained, yet flavorful, style that begs for good company.