Domaine Cheval-Blanc Signé - Bordeaux Blanc 2002

Fresh as a summer breeze, the 2002 Domaine Cheval-BlancSigné caresses the nose and palate with a bracing freshness and the light but haunting waft of pineapple, melon, and grapefruit married to the alluring scent of the sea. In other words, the 2002 Domaine Cheval-Signé is white Bordeaux at its best. It combines delicacy and ethereal charm with plenty of flavor. Light to medium bodied, this dry white knows how to charm…. and does it ever go down easy. It reminds us of the early days of June and the promise of summer; it recalls the sound of the sea as it beckons bathers into its cool cleansing tides, which wash away the weather stained cares of every day life. So, take a bottle or two and head for the beach, or if you can’t make it to the nearest strip of good sand, but you are still in need of a halcyon day, the Domaine Cheval-Blanc Signé will more than fill the bill. The Domaine Cheval-Blanc is summer in a bottle, or better still summer in a glass – your glass. Like all white Bordeaux, we suggest that you serve the white Cheval-Blanc Signé ice cold: you can always allow it to warm just a tad in the glass for extra flavor. Enjoy!

Seafood and the fruits of the sea provide excellent accompaniments to the 2002 Michel Picard Pouilly-Fuissé. Whether baked, grilled, poached or sautéed, fresh flounder, sole or sea bass pair beautifully with this elegant white wine. Scallops, shrimp, lobster, and prawns offer other tried and true pairings. However, a bowl full of mussels, sautéed in a light saffron cream sauce, remains our perennial favorite. Chicken fricassee works well, too. However, the glory of Pouilly-Fuissé, and the Michel Picard is no exception, is its ability to shine on its own, unadorned or obliterated by food. Indeed, the 2002 Michel Picard Pouilly shines in the company of a single, thin, well-made glass and supplies the aperitif par excellence. Better still, call a friend and pour two glasses then wait for the enchantment to begin.

Domaine Cheval-Blanc Signé is located in the Haut-Benauge region of Bordeaux near Entre-Deux-Mers, an area known for the production of exceptional white wines. This property has been in the Signé family for over 150 years. The current proprietor, Alain Signé, runs this little bijou of a property with meticulous care, producing fresh, lively, white Bordeaux in the classical style. Domaine Cheval-Blanc Signé fashions its fine, classic style of white Bordeaux from old vines. All three of the traditional white Bordeaux varietals are grown in the clay, gravel and limestone soils of the property and each is used in the final blend. Typically, the final cepage at Domaine Cheval-Blanc Signé includes 60% Semillon, 30% Sauvignon Blanc, and 10% Muscadelle (a traditional white Bordeaux varietal that yields dry aromatic white wine but bears no relation to what most consumers know as Muscat or Muscatel). Production is small at this estate; on average only 1600 cases of wine are produced in any given vintage. To protect the finished product, the domain utilizes the heavy, more expensive old style Bordeaux bottle as a final assurance to the consumer that the utmost care has been taken to provide the highest quality product.

Bordeaux: The World’s Most Renowned Wine Bordeaux is the world’s largest fine wine producing region, encompassing more than 500,000 acres and dozens of individual appellations and communes. Communes such as Margaux, Pauillac, and St. Emilion are legendary as are the scores of collectible wines that flow from their vineyards. Indeed, the wine wares of Bordeaux, (both the region and its wines are referred to as Bordeaux), are some of the finest and most expensive on earth. Furthermore, this renowned viticultural region, which has become synonymous with full-bodied red wine, is also the traditional home of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, the three musketeers of almost all red Bordeaux and the basis for Meritage blends around the world. And what remains unknown to many consumers is that Bordeaux is also one of the planet’s largest and greatest sources of white wine, principally from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Bordeaux, meaning beside the waters, refers to the region’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the broad estuary, the Gironde, for which the entire viticutural department (the equivalent of a county or state in the United States) is named. Bordeaux, the region as well as the department’s leading city, lie at the center of the confluence of the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers, which flow into the Gironde, which redoubles Bordeaux’s effort to live up to its name. Moreover, it is Bordeaux’s propinquity to the sea that provides a stable, moderate climate, which is favorable to the production of fine wine. This marriage to the sea has also provided the historical highway by which Bordeaux wines have traveled the world, gaining esteem and recognition long before most other landlocked wine regions were able to safely transport their wines overland to eager markets. Since the first century BCE, when the Romans established themselves in Bordeaux and referred to the area as Biturigiaca, this ancient viticultural paradise has been a constant source of fine wine. Known to the emperors of Rome, poets, (most notably Pliny and Ausonius), and popes, Bordeaux has enjoyed the envy of the wine producing world longer than any other wine region on earth. From Pliny to the most contemporary wine critics, including Robert Parker Jr., Bordeaux wines have never gone out of favor. Besides, what other wine region can claim three millennia of continuous production and millions of satisfied customers?