Ch√¢teau Beynat, "Blanc" 2019

Producer Profile: Natural Bordeaux! Château Beynat is a 103 year-old estate in Castillon, on the eastern edge of Bordeaux proper. The estate stretches over 25 hectares with 21 of them in Castillon, 2 of them in the Bordeaux Blanc appellation, 1 in the Bordeaux Rosé appellation and the final of their plantings in famed Saint-Émilion. Practicing organic since 2011, with biodynamic certification from Demeter in 2019, Château Beynat is certainly in the minority in this French winemaking region, more renowned for royalty, astronomic price-tags, and bottles scoring 100 Parker Points than for cultivating vines according to the lunar calendar or prepping tea sprays in the vineyard. It has not always been this way though: the 103 year journey towards biodynamics has been a more recent feature under the stewardship of vigneron Alain Tourenne, from 2008 onwards. In this way, the wines being cultivated today are some of the most exciting as they represent a complete transformation of what ends up in those bottles labeled “Beynat.” They are wines at once more alive and curious, bottlings that skim the Bordelais surface without being pulled under by the tannic riptide. Prime wines from an old estate being evermore modernized in the world’s most expensive – and one of the world’s most famous – wine regions. Certainly a project to be watched!

Vinification: 100% organic and biodynamic Sauvignon Blanc from clay and limestone soil. After harvest, the grapes were direct pressed into a stainless steel tank, fermented using native yeasts and allowed to rest in tank for five months before bottling. Bottled with a touch of SO2. 

Tasting: For those wanting to show their Bordeaux-obsessed grandparents that classic can also be natural, this one's for you. 100% organic and biodynamic Sauvignon Blanc, as classic as can be: this is a crisp, dry, light white wine, full of lively green apple, bosc pear, and just a touch of honey. A wine with enough acidity to deglaze the pan on Thanksgiving day, but refreshing and pretty enough to serve as a pairing to a richer, heavier dish.