Just when you think you know something about wine, and especially when you think you know enough to write off entire categories of wine, something comes along to slap some sense into you – if not to confound, intrigue, and humble you. So it was with this bright, structured, resolutely individual white from Château Cantelaudette, an estate headquartered in the Graves de Vayres AOC, a small zone that hugs the Dordogne River near Libourne, on Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Graves de Vayres is within the Entre-Deux-Mers region, which produces an ocean of often mundane whites combining the traditional white Bordeaux characteristics of Sauvignon Blanc (grassy, citrusy, acidic), Sémillon (waxy and fleshy), and Muscadelle (perfumed and grapey) in varying measures. When I saw that Cantelaudette’s ’15 was 100% Sémillon, some of my old prejudices kicked in: I expected something honeyed and aromatic but rather undefined, as can happen with Sémillon in Bordeaux. Boy, was I wrong!

Aside from the wines of Australia’s Hunter Valley, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a varietal Sémillon with this much intensity and lift: the wine is just vibrating with energy, and yet the trademark texture of the variety lends palate weight. The aromatics are ripe and exotic (mango, white peach, wildflower honey) but without the wine turning into fruit cocktail. For me, this was a revelatory example of this variety in this terroir, which, as its name suggests, is gravelly and sandy – just like the more-famous Graves and Pessac-Léognan AOCs on the Left Bank.

The 2015 Cantelaudette Blanc has a light golden yellow core moving to green highlights on the rim. The nose is driven by aromas of yellow papaya, green mango peel, orange blossoms, preserved lemon and finely crushed stones. The palate is rich and has a very creamy texture after it gets enough air and warms a touch in the glass. The wine has a powerful depth of minerality and deep flavors which are really uncommon for most white Bordeaux on the market. This wine should be consumed in its youth, ideally over the next two to three years, although I would not be surprised if it shows well a decade from now. This wine has plenty of acidity to pair with various styles of food; I’d suggest a dish that showcases some exotic, almost tropical fruit character. Pour into a large Bordeaux stem at about 50-55 degrees, and try it, either alongside this crunchy salad or on its own as an electrifying apéritif.