2002 Château d'Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux

2002 Château d'Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux

Product: 20028004787
Prices start from £213.00 per half bottle (37.5cl). Buying options
2002 Château d'Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

The alcohol this vintage is 14%, while the residual sugar is 129.4 grams per litre, and the total acidity is 4.5 grams per litre of H2SO4.

Pale to medium gold coloured, the 2002 d'Yquem strides confidently out of the glass with forthright notions of spiced pears, baked pineapple, apricot preserves and orange blossoms with touches of graham crackers, praline, ginger nut and lemon curd. The palate lends an understated earthy/savoury character with seamless freshness and a satiny texture paving the long, perfumed finish. 

Open-knit, expressive and yet still packing some primary fruit flavours, this vintage has entered its drinking window for those who love Yquem while it still possesses bags of vivacity. Five to seven more years in bottle should begin to yield more of the toffee, toasted nuts and savoury elements for those who love that more evolved phase.

Drink 2019 - 2040

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate (August 2019)

wine at a glance

Delivery and quality guarantee

Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous90/100

The 2002 Yquem has a very seductive nose, fresh almonds, Gâteau Basque, saffron and candle wax, not the most complex compared to other vintages yet nicely focused. The palate keeps it tight and linear on the entry, with plenty of concentration though with a counterbalancing bitter edge that keeps this Yquem on its toes. Probably reaching its peak now after almost 20 years, it will surely give two-three more decades of drinking pleasure.

Drink 2021 - 2035

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2022)

Read more
Wine Advocate93/100

The alcohol this vintage is 14%, while the residual sugar is 129.4 grams per litre, and the total acidity is 4.5 grams per litre of H2SO4.

Pale to medium gold coloured, the 2002 d'Yquem strides confidently out of the glass with forthright notions of spiced pears, baked pineapple, apricot preserves and orange blossoms with touches of graham crackers, praline, ginger nut and lemon curd. The palate lends an understated earthy/savoury character with seamless freshness and a satiny texture paving the long, perfumed finish. 

Open-knit, expressive and yet still packing some primary fruit flavours, this vintage has entered its drinking window for those who love Yquem while it still possesses bags of vivacity. Five to seven more years in bottle should begin to yield more of the toffee, toasted nuts and savoury elements for those who love that more evolved phase.

Drink 2019 - 2040

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate (August 2019)

Read more
Jancis Robinson MW18/20

Young Sauternes often reminds me of pear juice and this wine, tasted from a half bottle just couriered from Bordeaux, was like nothing more than the healthiest, cleanest pear juice. Pale gold with a slightly greener tinge than most young Yquem. Very fresh, long and deep-flavoured this wine has that ingredient X that Yquem always seems to manage, but this is certainly not one of the sweetest or most intense Yquems. 

It is certainly greater than any other 2002 sweet white Bordeaux I remember tasting, with the strongly possible exception of Climens, but is almost spookily open for a recently bottled Yquem. There’s the merest hint of astringency on the finish still but this wine could be enjoyed in its relatively simple youth.

Drink 2007 - 2025

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2006)

Read more

About this WINE

Château d’Yquem

Château d’Yquem

Château d’Yquem is the leading estate in the Sauternes appellation on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. It has long been reputed for making one of the world’s great sweet wines. In the 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines, Yquem was given the lofty title of Premier Cru Supérieur – the sole property at that level. It sits comfortably among the First Growths of the Médoc and their equivalents on the Right Bank regarding its quality and prestige among wine collectors.

The estate has a noble history dating back to the 1590s. By 1711, it was owned by the Sauvage family, French aristocrats whose descendants would remain at the helm for almost three centuries. Yquem is now part of the Louis Vuitton Moët-Hennessy (LVMH) group, owned by Bernard Arnault, one of France’s wealthiest people.

Yquem is located in the heart of Sauternes, at the commune’s highest point and surrounded by many of the appellation’s other leading estates. The vineyard is planted to a majority of Sémillon, supported by Sauvignon Blanc. There are 113 hectares of vines, though only 100 hectares are used in any one vintage.

To make a bottle of Yquem depends on developing botrytis cinerea, the so-called “noble rot”, in the vineyard. Harvest involves up to 200 workers, passing through the vineyard up to 10 times to pick only those berries that have been infected with noble rot. This doesn’t happen uniformly, and it doesn’t happen every year. In some years, no Yquem is produced at all – as in 1964 or, most recently, 2012. Of this approach, President Pierre Lurton says: “It’s important to take a lot of risk. If you don’t take a risk, you don’t make Yquem.”

Today, Yquem is led by Pierre Lurton, its longtime President, along with Estate Manager Lorenzo Pasquini. The Cellar Master is Toni El Khawand, following the departure of Sandrine Garbay in 2022.

In addition to the sweet Sauternes produced here, there is also a dry white wine, Y (pronounced “ee-greck”).

Find out more
Sauternes

Sauternes

Sauternes is where arguably the world's finest sweet white wines are produced. The Sauternes appellation actually consists of five communes: Barsac, Preignac, Bommes, Fargues and Sauternes itself. Barsac is also an appellation in its own right.

Sauternes literally has an atmosphere different from any of the other major communes. At the southern tip of the Graves,close to the Garonne, not only is the land hillier and decidedly more bucolic but it also enjoys a specific mesoclimate of evening autumn mists which linger until well into the following day, unless burnt off by warm sunshine.

The mists are caused by the cool, spring-fed waters of the Ciron River meeting the warmer tidal Garonne, and the result is an ideal environment for the growth of the mould botrytis cinerea. When its arrival is felicitous, it feeds on the water in the ripe grapes, dehydrating them and leaving sweet, shriveled fruit.

Other regions in Bordeaux (ie Cadillac, Loupiac) produce wines in a similar style from the same method, but none achieve the profundity and complexity of Sauternes.

Recommended Châteaux : Ch. D'Yquem, Ch. Climens (Barsac), Ch. Suduiraut, Ch. Rieussec,  Sigalas- Rabaud, Ch. Coutet (Barsac), Ch. de Fargues, Ch. Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Ch. Doisy-Védrines (Barsac), Chateau Partarrieu, La Tour Blanche

Find out more
Sauvignon Blanc & Sémillon

Sauvignon Blanc & Sémillon

The blend used for White Graves and Sauternes and rarely encountered outside France. In the great dry whites of Graves, Sauvignon Blanc tends to predominate in the blend, although properties such as Smith Haut Lafite use 100% Sauvignon Blanc while others such as Laville Haut Brion have as much as 60% Sémillon in their final blends. Sauvignon Blanc wines can lose their freshness and fruit after a couple of years in bottle - if blended with Sémillon, then the latter bolsters the wine when the initial fruit from the Sauvignon fades. Ultimately Sauvignon Blanc gives the wine its aroma and raciness while Sémillon gives it backbone and longevity.

In Sauternes, Sémillon is dominant, with Sauvignon Blanc playing a supporting role - it is generally harvested about 10 days before Sémillon and the botrytis concentrates its sweetness and dampens Sauvignon Blanc`s naturally pungent aroma. It contributes acidity, zip and freshness to Sauternes and is an important component of the blend.

Find out more