Call me stubborn, but I am going to try again, this time, with the wine panel. We gathered to taste 20 recent vintages from Pessac-Léognan and Graves. Along with Florence Fabricant, I was joined by John Winterman, a partner at Bâtard, and Christy Frank, proprietor of Frankly Wines in TriBeCa. All of us stand with the cadre of white Bordeaux lovers, so perhaps our perspective is skewed. But even though the best examples exceeded our $100-a-bottle limit and so were not included, we reveled in the charms of what we had.It’s important to understand that good white Bordeaux does not conform to many general expectations of what makes a wine interesting. They are not especially aromatic. Rather than a cornucopia of fruits in a glass, the attractions are more understated, like scents of beeswax and lanolin, a texture that applies a caressing scrub to the taste buds and an energy that entices another refreshing sip. In the best examples you can feel an almost weightless depth and presence that linger in the mouth long after you swallow the wine.

Restrained, elegant attributes like these can easily be overshadowed in more obvious wines. A modern formula, dependent on flashy oak and flamboyant fruit, can drown out a good white Bordeaux’s fine gradations of texture and flavor and its pinpoint balance, which can so easily tip into the realm of flabby or uninteresting.best red wine to pair with salmon Much of white Bordeaux is in fact inexpensive and inoffensive, fermented and aged in steel tanks and intended for early drinking. best wine tours in long islandSome of these comes from Entre-Deux-Mers, a region between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers that once accounted for a great deal of modest white wine but has now been largely replanted in reds. best wine areas in usa

The more interesting whites, which we sought for our tasting, tend to be aged in barrels and come from west of the Garonne, from Pessac-Léognan just south of the city of Bordeaux and occasionally from Graves, to the south of Pessac-Léognan. Once, the name Graves encompassed the entirety of these two regions. best wines to drink with italian foodIt was easy to remember and apt, with its linguistic reference to the gravelly soil that underlies many of the best parts of Bordeaux west of the Garonne and in the Médoc to the north.best wine tasting days In the 19th century and up until World War II, Bordeaux produced more white wine than red. cheap white wine bcIf it was not always of the highest quality, Graves at least was well known, and was particularly favored in England.

In 1987, the large Graves appellation was divided. The northern part, which contained most of the best producers, was renamed Pessac-Léognan. What was gained in precision was lost in name recognition. While red grapes thrive in the famous gravel beds, the best whites come from soils with components of clay and limestone as well. These particular soils are in short supply in Bordeaux. That’s one reason most producers of white Bordeaux, even those at the absolute pinnacle like Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion and Domaine de Chevalier, which can charge as much if not more for their whites as for their reds, make far more red than white.Haut-Brion blanc and La Mission Haut-Brion blanc (formerly known as Laville Haut-Brion) were far beyond our budget, but they were nonetheless represented in our tasting. The two estates are both owned by Domaine Clarence Dillon, which makes a single second wine of plots that, for one reason or another, are not included in the top wines of each chateau.

That wine, the 2010 La Clarté de Haut-Brion, just squeaked into the tasting at $99 but was our favorite, exhibiting quiet complexity, a beautiful texture and great depth.The Clarté was 83 percent sémillon, an unusually high proportion for a dry white Bordeaux. By contrast, our No. 2 wine, the 2011 Les Hauts de Smith (the second wine of Smith-Haut-Lafitte), was 100 percent sauvignon blanc. Even if the aromas and flavors ran toward floral and pepper rather than lanolin and beeswax, it showed none of the grassy pungency we associate with sauvignon blanc. Instead it offered a richness and succulence that I believe reflects the terroir more than the grape. The 2010 Château Olivier, our No. 3 bottle, was a blend of 75 percent sauvignon blanc, 23 percent sémillon and 2 percent muscadelle, which, along with sauvignon gris, is also permitted in white Bordeaux. This tightly wound wine showed excellent acidity along with aromas of citrus, flowers and herbs. No. 4 was the 2012 Château Villa Bel-Air from the southern part of Graves, an almost textbook example of a good white Bordeaux and our best value at $21.

Because Graves is considered less prestigious than Pessac-Léognan, the wines are generally less expensive. That doesn’t necessarily make them good values unless the quality is there, too. Another excellent Graves value, even though it wasn’t in our tasting, is Clos Floridene, which I occasionally see on restaurant lists. Other wines in our top 10 worth noting are the well-balanced, subtle 2012 Château Carbonnieux and the inviting 2011 Château Couhins-Lurtin. I don’t want to be heavy-handed about white Bordeaux, but I do have a proposition. See if you can find one or two of the wines among our top 10. You may like them. If so, like me, you may soon be scheming to put together the cash for some Domaine de Chevalier, a top white Bordeaux that nowadays costs more than $100 a bottle. If you would pay that for a mediocre white Burgundy, why not for a great white Bordeaux? La Clarté de Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan 2010 ★★★ 1/2Complex, balanced, textured and well integrated, with lingering flavors of beeswax and herbs.

(MacArthur Beverages, Washington, D.C.) Les Hauts de Smith Pessac-Léognan 2011 ★★★Smooth and subtle with a stealthy richness; flavors of white flowers and pepper. (Joanne Bordeaux, Jersey City) $38 Château Olivier Pessac-Léognan 2010 ★★ 1/2Tightly wound and energetic, with aromas of citrus, herbs and flowers. (Partners, New York) $52Best Value: Château Villa Bel-Air Graves 2012 ★★ 1/2Substantial, textured and well-balanced with flavors of lanolin, beeswax and citrus. (Verity Wine Partners, New York) $21 Château Carbonnieux Pessac-Léognan 2012 ★★ 1/2Balanced and pleasing with subtle citrus, mineral and grassy aromas and flavors. (Premier Wine, Richmond, Calif.) $45Château Couhins-Lurton Pessac-Léognan 2011 ★★ 1/2Medium-bodied, with an inviting texture and aromas of citrus and oak. (Fruit of the Vines, Long Island City, New York) $40 Château Lespault Martillac Pessac-Léognan 2010 ★★Spicy, waxy and tightly wound with flavors of citrus and herbs.