Château Chasse Spleen Blanc de Chasse Spleen 2023

The Land There is no such thing as white Médoc. The appellation rules for the Médoc and its communes cover red wine only, so any white grown on this peninsula has to be bottled as plain AOC Bordeaux, no matter how serious the site. Chasse-Spleen grows its white on 4 hectares of sandy clay in Moulis-en-Médoc, inland from the Gironde and surrounded by some of the best Cabernet land in Bordeaux. Sandy clay holds more water and stays cooler than the gravel the reds prefer, which suits Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc and helps them keep their acid through a warm summer. The estate describes the project as making white wine on red land, and that tension is the point of the bottle: a Bordeaux white wine from a place built for reds. The Wine The 2023 Blanc de Chasse-Spleen is 50% Sémillon, 43% Sauvignon Blanc and 7% Muscadelle. Picking was quick and early: Sauvignon Blanc on September 6 and 7, Sémillon on September 7 and 11, Muscadelle on September 11, all of it in the cellar within the first stretch of September heat. The season had its problems, with spring frost from early April into mid-May and a humid June that brought mildew, but a cooler July and August helped the white grapes hold acidity. The wine is made in stainless steel tanks and new barriques, with 50% of it spending 9 months in new oak. Steel keeps the Sauvignon sharp; the barrel portion gives Sémillon its waxy width. Golden yellow. Melon, sea spray, white flowers and a green herbal edge, then a full, broad palate with lemon verbena and a long, cooling finish. About 1,500 cases were made. The People The white began as an experiment under the Villars family, who have run Chasse-Spleen since Jacques Merlaut's family bought it in 1976. Nobody on the team had made white wine before, and for the first few years the only people drinking it were family and staff. The first commercial release came with the 1995 vintage and did well enough that the white became a permanent part of the estate. Bernadette Villars, who rebuilt Chasse-Spleen's reputation in the 1970s and 1980s with Émile Peynaud advising, died in 1992. Her daughter Céline Villars-Foubet and son-in-law Jean-Pierre Foubet run the estate now. The estate has kept refining the blend over three decades, and the 2023 now carries a small share of Muscadelle alongside the original Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Food Pairing Seared scallops with brown butter and a squeeze of lemon make the obvious match: the Sémillon's texture holds up to the butter and the salinity picks up the sweetness of the scallop. Roast chicken rubbed with tarragon and garlic and finished with its own pan juices sits right in the wine's herbal register. Pan-fried trout with toasted almonds and capers, or crab cakes with a lemony remoulade, both use the acid to cut through the richness. This is the white to pour when someone at the table insists they only drink red, and it turns out to be the bottle that empties first.