Chateau Montet Sauvignon Blanc

Name: Chateau Montet
Color: White
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: France
Region: Bordeaux
Price: $9
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


The Chateau Montet is a white Bordeaux made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes. It was very clean, crisp, and refreshing. I picked up on lemon and lime flavors, with maybe a little grapefruit. It also had some nice mineral notes that I really liked. One thing that really stood out to me was the relatively "tame" acidity level. It was nicely balanced, without the higher acidity found in most New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.

We drank this wine last night with a dinner of white fish and crab meat. The wine and the meal went perfectly together, as the wine really picked up on the fresh lemon flavor of the fish. It also drank very well on its own after dinner...For $9, this was an extremely good value.

Chateau Guibon White Bordeaux

Name: Chateau Guibon
Color: White
Varietal: Blend (Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc/Muscadelle)
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: France
Region: Bordeaux (Entre-Deux-Mers)
Price: $12
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

This was a really nice wine that I bought at Total Wines on a whim after reading the most recent WSJ Tastings article (Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher) about white Bordeaux. I couldn't find the specific labels that they recommended, so I took their advice and just grabbed a couple of bottles in the $10-12 price range. Note that we had the 2007 (the picture on the left is from much older vintage).

We had this wine with grouper and rice, along with a big bowl of crab meat in butter and garlic sauce. Very delicious!! The color was a pale, yellow gold. It had kind of a tight, limited nose of lemon, pear, and grapefruit, with a very slight grassy small (although not nearly as much as a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc). I'm also getting over a cold, so that may have contributed to the muted nose. The wine was dry with really good acidity. It had a medium body with very good taste -- crisp, refreshing, paired very nicely with the seafood. I would be interested in trying this wine after another year or two. I think it would really hold up well and may even open up more with some more time in the bottle. I can't wait to try other white Bordeaux wines.