Grand Bateau white 2021 (per 6); Bottle price € 13.75

Grape variety 100% Sauvignon Blanc and vinified with the most modern techniques. What that means is not stated, but I think it mainly has to do with hygiene. The biggest enemy after picking is spoilage and the fruit fly. The latter makes vinegar from your yield. And filtering also removes taste, so you do that as little as possible, but that is only possible with good material. Unfiltered wines are increasingly available. What is better known are the wines with the addition on the label “sur lie”, which means that they have matured on their own sediment. You especially see this with the Muscadet wines.

Price €13.75 and packed in boxes of 6

Below more about the winemaker and his background:

Bordeaux

Perhaps the most famous wine region in the world. Is that because it is the largest area on the entire planet because of those 120,000 hectares or thereabouts? Or because the English put it on the map and developed it during 3 centuries of domination. Or perhaps the favorable location on the river in terms of transport/export.

Dutch people were there for water transport to the northern parts of Europe. They also did that in the Loire. So the dominance of the Netherlands was particularly striking since they drained part of the Médoc, a swamp area, just like in the Vendée.
Napoleon ensured that the area was of course back in French hands since 1453 and that there was an official qualification in the area in 1855. Production is mainly red. Grape varieties Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The surfaces are quite large in contrast to Burgundy, for example. It is therefore convenient that the Merlot ripens 3 weeks before the stiff Cabernet, which makes harvesting easier.

Grand Bateau Bordeaux

This Château works closely with the famous Château Beychevelle in the north of the Médoc. This means, among other things, that the winemaker of the latter, Philippe Blanc, uses his expertise on the wines of Grand Bateau. This collaboration has been going on since 1980.