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Château Couhins-Lurton White
The characteristic of Château Couhins-Lurton white wines, Cru Classé de Graves, is to be made from Sauvignon only. Very elegants, they reveal fruity and fresh when they are young and gain in mineral complexity after a few years in bottle. They age very well.
Wine style
Elegant and Fruity
Grape blend
100% Sauvignon blanc.
Weather
Spring was very trying, with considerable rainfall leading to fungal diseases of all sorts. This called for very close attention in the vines until the 14th of July, when the weather changed durably for the better.
Tasting Comment
Appareance
Very pale colour with golden highlights.
Nose
Many people consider Couhins-Lurton a reference for age-worthy white wines. The 2012 vintage is very subtle at the moment, with a delicate bouquet of broom flowers and acacia blossoms. It is clearly marked by Sauvignon Blanc, the sole variety used to make this beautiful, very elegant wine. The nose is rather closed-in, but will undoubtedly open up to reveal its intrinsic complexity after a few months in bottle.
Mouth
The wine proves to be quite elegant on the palate as well, with the cut and precision that is virtually inimitable in other countries around the world where the grapes grow too quickly. The flavours fill out beautifully on the palate, with surprising citrus nuances. The wine really has many of the aromas of fresh fruit. These will become more deep and subtle with age, with hints of brioche, butter, and warm stones typical of the appellation's greatest terroirs. It may even become quasi-immortal, because it is not rare to uncork a 30-year-old Couhins-Lurton that marries beautifully with fine food such as sole gratiné with old Comté cheese, a veal entrecote steak with truffles, or golden brown veal sweetbreads...
Ratings and reviews
Tasted at the André Lurton tasting in London. The 2012 Couhins-Lurton Blanc has quite a rich bouquet with yellow plum, hazelnut and a touch of white truffle in the background. The palate feels very harmonious with well-judged acidity, that nuttiness continuing from the nose into a finish endowed with plenty of weight and fruit concentration, a tang of marmalade on the finish. This has a bright future ahead. Tasted June 2017. (Neal Martin)
Normally this wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc. The 2012 is very crisp, with notes of figs, white currants and zesty citrus. It is medium-bodied, fresh, lively and dry, with great acidity and balance. Anticipated maturity: now-2025+. Drink : 2015-2025.
Lively, with thyme, chive and mâche notes, backed by core of zippy lemon pulp, grapefruit and kiwifruit flavors. Picks up fennel and straw accents through the finish. Should open up with moderate cellaring. Drink now through 2017. (James Molesworth)
This is a fruity wine, fresh and herbaceous. Bright crisp apples and citrus flavors are tightened by a steely texture that comes through strongly. It should develop and fill out, so drink from 2016.
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2015 Edition - Perfectly limpid and attractive pale yellow colour with straw-coloured highlights. The appealingly complex bouquet features nuances of white flowers and ripe fruit with mineral and boxwood overtones. The wines starts out full-bodied on the palate, which shows volume, balance, richness, and freshness. 2016-2020 / Salmon in a puff pastry.
Elegant nose of white flowers, ripe apricot and a hint of jasmine. Good ripeness on the palate, which has a spicy edge. Fine, piercing acidity supports and cuts the ripe fruit and gives excellent length.
Ripe, subtle fruit with spicy nuances and marked minerality. Rich and very vivacious on the palate with a long aftertaste. Deliciously invigorating.
Primeurs - An array of citrus fruit provides mouth-watering pleasure thanks to wonderful crispness. A great wine to serve as an aperitif to friends. Explodes on the palate.
Fine floral 100% Sauvignon Blanc, really classy well-made wine. Drink: 2013 - 2017. (Taster: Steven Spurrier)
Sweet start. Green, interesting fruit. Certainly much more interesting than the average Sauvignon Blanc. Tight but with potential. Drink 2016-2022.
Primeurs - Bouquet of flowers and apple. Powerful, dense and broad-based on the palate, and should age well. O: 2014 – P: 5 years. (Jacques Dupont)
Consumption period
2013 - 2022
Our suggestions
Starters
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Fish and Shellfish
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Cheese |
Salads |
Ground
Surface
6.00 ha
Soil
Gravel, sand and gravel, on a subsoil of limestone.
Winemaking
Grape harvest
By hand in several passes
Others
Graft stock
101.14 - 3309C - Riparia
Plant food
Traditional, limited impact
Plant density
6,500 vines per hectare
Wine average age
27 years old
Grape variety
Sauvignons
Pruning type
Double guyot with debudding
Fermentation
After pressing and settling, in oak barrels (30% new)
Fermentation temperature
18 to 23 °C
Malolactic
No
Wine maturing
For 10 months in oak barrels on full lees with bâtonnage.
Wine montage
Tartaric precipitation by cold treatment and bentonite.
Maturing potential
Fully expressive between 3 and 10 years, can age 20 to 30 years
Oenologist consultant
Denis DUBOURDIEU (Professor at the Institut d'Oenologie de Bordeaux) and Valérie LAVIGNE.
Recipes
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