The 2021 Virginie de Valandraud Blanc exhibits aromas of crisp orchard fruit, white flowers and pastry cream, followed by a medium-bodied, lively and nicely balanced palate. Since S?millon suffered this year, Sauvignon Blanc, for once, predominates in the blend. Jean-Luc Thunevin once worked for a bank owned by the Mouiex family, and, without knowing all that much about wine, requested some bottles of the 1955 P?trus, his wife's birth year. As a good employee, his request was gratified, and his passion for wine began; the rest is history. But today, this emblematic vin de garage has become a vin de terroir, defined by holdings on the cool, shallow clay-over-limestone soils of Saint-?tienne-de-Lisse; and the garage has become a state-of-the-art winery, with all the precision and temperature control that comes with it. The Valandraud style is undeniably fleshy and dramatic, even hedonistic, and the estate's 2021 (all 24,000 bottles of it) exemplify that style in an unusually elegant, middleweight register.