To part I of this article
It was evening, my wife was expected to land in Paris the next day, and I sat down in a lovely wine bar and ordered a plate of charcuterie and a glass of wine. A guy my age was sitting next to me, and a conversation developed between us. It turned out that my dining companion was a French wine merchant. Since we shared the same area of interest, we shared our favorite wines. I told him that I love dessert wines, including Sauternes. “Have you tasted Chateau d’Yquem yet?” my partner asked. “Not yet” I admitted. “Listen carefully,” he said, “there are excellent Sauternes wines, but Yquem is a league above. However, you are in luck because due to the price of the wine, this wine bar is one of the only ones in France that pour Yquem by the glass.” I thanked him for the advice, and at that moment, I decided that tomorrow, when my wife arrived, I would take her to this wine bar for a glass of Yquem, something that would surely make her happy. The next day, when we arrived at the bar with much ceremony, it turned out that it was closed that day and so was the next day, so much to our disappointment, we left Paris without tasting the desired wine…
“Sauternes is the best white wine, and the best of Sauternes wines is made by Chateau d’Yquem” Thomas Jefferson, Former president of the United States.
In July 2011, a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem wine from the 1811 vintage was sold at auction for 75,000 pounds. This price was an all-time Guinness record for a bottle of wine. The lucky buyer was a restaurant owner. The wine is now displayed in a bulletproof display cabinet, with a temperature and air pressure regulating system, in the winner’s restaurant on the island of Bali. In an interview with the BBC, he defined the purchase as a “petite folie,” a small and expensive madness. It is undoubtedly a costly madness, but small? It is a matter of scale. The 1811 vintage is the most famous of the ‘Comet vintages’ – years in which an astronomical event occurred before the harvest, in this case, the Great Comet of 1811. “This wine is very special,” explained the buyer, “it comes from the winery that produces the world-famous white wine, and it was created in the vintage when a particularly bright and large comet was observed; some believe that it blessed the wine. When I bought it, I didn’t know it was the most expensive white wine ever sold, but I knew very well that it was the most expensive wine I had ever purchased.”
The reason for Chateau’s wine quality is based on several factors, the first of which is the terroir: the winery is located in a unique microclimate. This is the highest winery in Sauternes, above a hill that dominates the Sauternes region. Another reason is the commitment of the owners, who do not spare any amount of money to achieve the maximum quality of the wine. There are weak vintages in which Yquem does not produce wine, such as the 2012 vintage. The people of Chateau d’Yquem take various actions to reduce the harvest, to reach a maximum level of aromas and flavors. In the ranking of French wines, determined following the country’s wine regulations, the wines of Yquem stand in the highest rank – Premiere Cru Superieur Class.
The visit to the winery was surrounded by great excitement for me. I finally get to taste the wine I’ve been craving so much. The castle where the winery is located is ancient and spacious, and the vineyards stretch to the foot of the hill from horizon to horizon. The visitor’s room of the winery is an example of good taste and elegance. The hall is made of oak wood, the color of the wine, with bottles from the various winery’s vintages hanging on the bent wooden beams. In the luxurious tasting room, we were poured the excellent 2017 vintage. And it tasted like… You must be curious: how was it? Well, excuse me, but it’s hard for me to type this, so with your permission, we’ll wait until the end of the article; there’s a chance I’ll put things in writing, and maybe not…
Barrel room, Chateau d'Yquem
François Amirault – Estate Manager:
It’s harvest time. The picking team is ready for the hard work but also for a big celebration. When the fog disappears, it will be time to concentrate and carefully select the grapes that will be harvested and which have been infected with the noble rot. As soon as the fog gives way to the sun, the workers come to life, the rows of vines are filled with movement, the old pickers mock the young, and the air is filled with jokes and laughter. The passages between the rows of vines take on a party atmosphere, with great excitement and a burst of adrenaline because the moment has finally arrived! But no… Although the harvest has started, waiting a little longer for the wine will be necessary. To make a great Sauternes wine, you have to expect, wait, taste, ponder, act with determination, and set new boundaries to capture something genuinely extraordinary before it’s too late… Although the noble rot requires much waiting, it waits for no one. Time waits for no one. Did we make the right decisions?
Harvest time (photo by Château Suduiraut)
Chateau de Fargues was founded in 1306 by Raymond Guilhem de Fargues. In 1472 the Lur Saluces family became owners. Three hundred years later, the same family took over Chateau d’Yquem. Chateau de Fargues is made in the same way as Yquem. The winery is still owned by the Lur Saluces family today, which no longer owns Yquem. Chateau de Fargues enjoys a crowd of Sauternes enthusiasts who respect and are rightly loyal to the estate as one of the great estates of Bordeaux. The estate has always been in the shadow of Yquem, not only geographically, but as the lesser-known estate owned by the Lur Saluces family, Yquem’s owners, for many years. While many Sauternes wineries tirelessly promote their wines, that’s different from De Fargues’s style. It does not seek the limelight. It was always more introverted than Yquem but produced deep wines with regularity and uniformity over the vintages. François Amirault, the winemaker, and manager of the estate, has been working at the winery for 29 years, says: “I don’t want to adapt to the market because I believe in what I do and in tradition. This is also why the winery does not produce white wine or a second label. Fargues is characterized, due to the terroir, by fresh, deep wines. Since we only make one wine, we try to make it the best. The wine is relatively expensive because there is no second-label or dry wine. If the grapes are not good, they are thrown away.”
François Amirault, Château de Fargues
We tasted some of the winery’s beautiful wines:
Château de Fargues 2017
Wonderful! The nose is so jammed with pineapple and contact glue smells. Very harmonious and powerful. Grapefruit and honey flavors. Very long finish. WS 96, RP 94. I gave a score of 96.
Château de Fargues 2007
The smell is of nuts, dried apricots, and contact adhesive. Full body, almost oily. Grapefruit, almond, and sea salt flavors. Long finish. WS 95, RP 97. I gave a score of 95.
Margaux Bourras, digital communication, Chateau Guiraud:
“It was not easy here during the COVID epidemic: part of the time the winery was closed. We could not recruit enough harvesters and had to separate them into small groups of winemakers, each of whom had to work with a personal basket of grapes to avoid getting infected. From the sales point of view, it was not a good time for champagne because people probably didn’t feel the need to celebrate. On the other hand, customers bought a lot of Sauternes wines because there was probably a need for guilty pleasures. People called the winery and said: “We ran out of Sauternes; send us a box urgently.” They asked for the best vintages and the first label (the high series). The 2019 vintage, released to a COVID-struck world at reasonable prices, was exactly what the customers wanted. From their isolated rooms, they voted with their wallets in favor of Sauternes in general and Chateau Guiraud in particular.”
Pierre Guiraud, a member of a family of wine merchants, purchased the estate in 1766. He had money but wanted to do something different from his parents. He tried to set up his winery. Pierre was not a typical estate owner – most neighbors were aristocrats, Catholics, and monarchists. He came from a wealthy family and was a bourgeois Protestant merchant. He had no intention of obscuring these differences from his neighbors. On the contrary, he sought to emphasize them, for example, by building a Protestant chapel on the estate grounds. He and his family regularly prayed in this chapel, and today it is a charming restaurant serving incredibly delicious food called La Chapelle. When Napoleon died, out of deep sympathy for the anti-monarchist nature of the leader, he changed the color of the wine label to black. Who would have expected that over two hundred years later, the design of the Chateau Guiraud label would be remarkably up to date compared to the labels of neighboring castles?
The tasting at Château GuiraudHere are the wines we tasted:
Château Guiraud 2009
Amazing wine, so complex. Scents of dried apricot, pineapple, melon, honey, and orange peel. Full body, almost oily. Impressive in length, wonderful candy. WS 96, RP 94. I gave a score of 96.
Château Guiraud 2016
Perfumed and loaded with lemon, honey, and sea salt scents. Not too sweet. RP 95. I gave a score of 95.
Château Guiraud 2010
Slightly oxidized slightly opaque smell. Rich and long. RP 93. I gave a score of 92.
Château Guiraud 2005
So harmonious and perfect. Balanced, complex, and elegant. Lemon tart and cooked apples. Tropical fruit flavors and honey. Impressive length. WS 97, RP 92. I gave a score of 96.
Epilogue
Did you manage to stay until the end of the article? Okay, there is no choice but to write my impressions of Chateau d’Yquem’s tasting. As mentioned, we tasted the 2017 vintage, which is considered an excellent vintage.
Chateau d’Yquem 2017
Fairly opaque nose.Some complexity.Light scents of sea salt, violets, and contact adhesive.Balanced and elegant.Long finish.Robert Parker gave a score of 99-97.I gave a score of 94. Is the king naked?Or maybe the wine was too young to enjoy?And if so, why did the winery offer it for tasting and only that?Many questions and few answers.
For the information of those interested – its price is about 500 euros per bottle. Is anyone interested? Not all at once, please.
Recommended restaurants
La Chapelle is a gourmet and inexpensive restaurant in the Chateau Guiraud estate (see above). It is located in the heart of the vineyards and has a tempting lunch menu, and if it weren’t the last day in Sauternes, we would have ordered dinner as well.
Maison Claude Darroze is a family-owned restaurant with a Michelin star. The restaurant is in the town of Langon in Sauternes and is surrounded by a beautiful garden. It is recommended to order the tasting menu.
Lalique is a restaurant with two Michelin stars located in the heart of the vineyards of Sauternes. We had a wonderful meal there. On the evening we dined, the restaurant’s chef (Jérôme Schilling) was absent from the kitchen during a significant gastronomic competition. Therefore, Alejandro Moyo, the restaurant’s sous chef, functioned as the actual chef. When we heard that the evening’s chef was Mexican in origin, we half-jokingly and half-seriously demanded hot sauce for the table. Years ago, such a request would have deteriorated our relationship with the restaurant staff to the point of losing our place around the table. But the kind and the knowledgeable waitress smiled and returned after a few minutes with a wonderful sauce. When we asked with a smile to thank the chef, but unfortunately, the sauce was not spicy enough, she said that at the end of the meal, the chef would want to meet us and apologize personally. After dinner, he parted from us with warm words. “It is essential that you enjoy this evening with us, especially guests like you, who come from far away and it is not obvious that you will stay here. You should know that the restaurant staff and I did our best so that you leave with a smile on your face. “Regarding the sauce, he apologized, “I’m short of chili peppers here, so I couldn’t make you a hot sauce. I keep some of these chili peppers at home. The next time you come, let me know in advance, and I’ll bring them and make a genuine Mexican sauce for you. You know, living alone for 20 years without a family in a foreign country it’s not easy, and sometimes in difficult moments, I console myself with a spicy Mexican meal that I prepare for myself. I’m happy; it’s a great honor to be sous chef of a starred restaurant in France.”
Executive Chef Alejandro, Lalique Restaurant
Are you feeling lucky? Celebrating a special event? Le Pressoir d’Argent Gordon Ramsay is the restaurant for you. Although this 3 Michelin star restaurant is located in the city of Bordeaux, about an hour’s drive from Sauternes, it is worth a memorable trip. For about 300 euros per person, you will be treated to a special meal accompanied by a wine matched to each dish on the tasting menu.
Recommended hotels
Château Sigalas Rabaud is located in the heart of the vineyards of Sauternes and offers 6 decorated guest rooms. The breakfasts are meticulous and excellent, and the staff is efficient and can help make reservations for nearby restaurants and wineries. It has a superb winery with wines you can taste and is the winner of the Best of Wine Tourism Gold competition.
Chateau d’arche hotel offers 8 guest rooms with a spectacular view of the vineyards. You are overlooking the village of Sauternes, a charming eighteenth-century house located on a hill in the heart of the vineyard.
Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey is the most prestigious of the three. It belongs to the Relais & Châteaux chain and includes the lovely 2 Michelin star restaurant Lalique (see restaurant review above).
A recommended itinerary in Sauternes:
