Chateau de Fieuzal, Blanc, Pessac-Leognan 2022

The 2022 Château De Fieuzal Blanc is a stunning, racy white, offering layers of bright citrus, lychee, white flowers, and crushed stone, with a touch of minty herbs. Medium-bodied, vibrant, and focused, it has bright acidity and a crystalline sense of purity. This showed beautifully both times I was able to taste it. Give bottles a year or two and drink through 2034.

Stemmy herbs with perfumed flowers, spices, morello cherries and baked citrus. Fresh and round with medium body and soft, fine-grained tannins. Long, plump and refined in the finish. Drink from 2026.

Cool blue fruit and wet stone nuances on the nose, smells fresh and inviting. Smooth and lively on the palate - this balances juicy red fruits - crisp cranberry, strawberry and chalky cherries with quite powdery tannins giving a full mouthfeel and rich texture. I like the styling, feels well controlled with nuance and subtle power and leaves a lasting impression of mint, liquorice and graphite.

Lively, gourmand and pure, the 2022 Blanc from de Fieuzal evokes aromas of verbena, white fruits, flowers and menthol. Medium to full-bodied, enrobing and charming, it's seamless with a fleshy, gourmand core of fruit and bright acids enhanced by an ethereal, pure and pristine balance. This blend of 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Sémillon confirms the stylistic evolution of this estate. Kudos!

The 2022 Château de Fieuzal Blanc does not quite deliver the complexity of the white Malartic-Lagravière: pretty, marzipan-tinged citrus fruit with a dab of peach skin. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, one of the spicier dry whites, but focused and cohesive, with decent length. Drink over the next 10 to 15 years. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

I find a rather sweet nose to the 2022 from de Fieuzal, showing a touch of caramelisation to the fruit, with a rather herby and leafy overlay. The texture of the palate feels gently polished, with a midpalate substance, filled with lightly pressed cranberry and blackberry fruits, with the same minty and green peppercorn note seen on the nose. There is a little powdery and toasted oak wrapping it all up as well. There is some nice fruit here, good structure some elements of freshness, which all sit together quite well;all in all though, I expected a little more than this.