2024 Les Arums de LaGrange, Bordeaux, France

ABOUT THE WINE

The 2024 Les Arums de Lagrange is a blend of 70% Sauvignon Blanc, 16% Sémillon, and 14% Sauvignon Gris. Although produced by the renowned Saint-Julien estate Château Lagrange, the wine is bottled under the broader Bordeaux Blanc appellation. The château maintains approximately 11 hectares of white varieties on gravel and clay soils in neighboring Médoc communes, with the wines made and matured at Château Lagrange itself.

The 2024 growing season proved particularly favorable to the style of Les Arums. After a wet spring, summer was dry but without excessive heat, helping preserve acidity and encouraging aromatic development. Harvest was later than in the preceding two vintages, beginning with Sauvignon Blanc on September 10 and concluding September 23. Grapes were picked by hand during the cool morning hours and manually sorted.

Winemaking is meticulous. Whole clusters undergo gentle pressing, followed by cold settling for 12 hours. Fermentation takes place in 225-liter barrels, with individual lots kept separate according to grape variety, vine age, terroir, and maturity. Importantly, malolactic fermentation is blocked, preserving the wine’s natural acidity and citrus-driven tension. The 2024 was then matured for seven months in barrel, 40% new, before the final blend was assembled for bottling.

This careful balance between barrel fermentation and preserved acidity defines Les Arums: oak provides texture rather than overt flavor. The 2024 is particularly harmonious, with citrus and white peach moving toward floral notes and a fresh, mouthwatering finish. Serve around 46–50°F (8–10°C) with oysters, shellfish, sole meunière, grilled fish, salmon, goat cheese, vegetable quiche, or roast poultry.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

Château Lagrange is a historic Third Growth (Troisième Grand Cru Classé) of the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, situated in Saint-Julien. Its vineyards occupy classic Médoc gravel rises over clay-limestone subsoils, conditions particularly well suited to Cabernet Sauvignon. Alongside its celebrated red wines, however, Lagrange has maintained an unusually adventurous approach to white Bordeaux.

Les Arums de Lagrange was created in 1996, making Château Lagrange an early modern proponent of serious dry white wine in the Médoc. The château describes the wine through three ideas—freshness, tension, and energy—with Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris providing aromatic intensity and acidity while Sémillon supplies roundness and texture.

That spirit of experimentation sits alongside increasingly detailed vineyard management and environmental stewardship. Château Lagrange works with parcel and even intra-parcel selections, separating lots according to variety, vine age, terroir, and maturity. Les Arums demonstrates the precision behind that approach particularly well: a barrel-fermented Bordeaux Blanc that uses oak for texture while keeping citrus freshness, floral detail, and mineral tension firmly at the center of the wine.