Château La Tour Blanche 2022

The restraint on the bouquet may be a hallmark: it’s not loud but deep; on the palate it’s dense and playful, with abundant opulence and power, and enormous aromatic complexity and length; if there is anything to criticise, it may be that the wine would benefit from a touch more freshness.

Offers a sedate, broad, flattering approach, with warmed brioche, creamed peach and glazed Anjou pear flavors. A subtle note of pie crust weaves through the finish, giving this white a warm tint. Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. Drink now through 2038. 1,250 cases made.

Creamy and round, with a lovely texture and weight on the palate — sweet and sugary, unctuous, rich and forward, yet with elegance too, maintaining tension and a sense of direction. Acidity lifts the richness with lemon, vanilla, orange marmalade, honey and spiced peach. 145 g/l residual sugar.

The 2022 La Tour Blanche does not have the delineation of its peers, just a little musty. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, just a touch of burnt honey, but the wood tannins impede a little towards the finish. This is a strange showing given the bottle 12 months ago. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

Candied lemon, pineapple, and honey with floral accents, apricots, and hints of white peach on the nose, and on the sweet, medium/full-bodied, fresh, mango- and pineapple-infused palate. Drink from 2025-2045. 92-94 pts.

Medium golden yellow colour with silver reflections. Fresh peach, ripe gooseberries in the background, a touch of honey and grapefruit zest. Powerful, textured, elegant and precise, fine acidity, salty finish, good length, certain ageing potential.

The 2022 Château La Tour Blanche is juicy and lively, with an exotic nose of honeyed orange, white chocolate, flowers, and hints of mint. It's a rich, unctuous, fleshy, full-bodied Sauternes that brings incredible opulence while staying nicely balanced and relatively light on its feet.

Concentrated and opulent, silky with clear mandarin and bitter orange peel adding texture and focus to these super-ripe apricot and preserved lemon flavors; good quality, 135 g/l residual sugar, harvest October 24 to 29. Organic farming, low yields.

An open, expressive nose blending lime zest with smoky notes, promising lovely succulence. On the palate, an airy lightness combines with graceful agility, carried by fluid acidity and pastry-like nuances.

The nose is racy, elegant, and offers a beautiful, precise grain—straightforward, racy, powerful, and delicate. Full of precision. We find notes of mirabelle plum, flint, kumquat, and small hints of verbena, combined with touches of apricot blossom, a sense of place (local terroir/biotope), refined gravel, as well as discreet notes of sweet pepper and a very subtle hint of citrus. The palate is magnificently crafted, supple, precise, elegant, airy, and offers creamy texture in balance, accuracy, delicacy, linearity, and power (power expressed with great accuracy). On the palate, this wine reveals notes of roasted kumquat, roasted apricot, and small notes of marmalade, combined with fine touches of pineapple in syrup, verbena, physalis, a touch of raisin (passerillage), as well as fine notes of Zante currant, pastries, honey, acacia/acacia blossom, roasted almond, and a subtle hint of nougat (in the background). Good length. A tannic side in the background (from an aromatic standpoint). A wine of lovely suppleness and great delicacy… Congratulations!

Miguel Aguirre, technical director, is in the process of putting La Tour Blanche back at the forefront in Sauternes—and that’s great news. Yellow color with green highlights. An intense, refined, fruity and subtle nose. A hint of warm butter. Precise on the attack, very lush on the mid-palate without being flabby, lifted by a floral note; the wine melts across the palate, rich and flavorful. A superb Sémillon. The best made since 1990.

With a vibrant, lively bouquet of pineapple, saffron, spices, vanilla pod and ripe orchard fruit, the 2022 La Tour Blanche, a blend of 85% Sémillon, 10% Sauvignon Blanc and 5% Muscadelle, has a moderately weighted, fleshy core of fruit with tension and bright acids on the finish. Fresh and well-crafted, it needs time to chill out. This has 135 grams per liter of residual sugar.