Sauternes

Gorgeous Sauternes. Very ripe in style, with dried apricot and honey character. Medium- to full-bodied, sweet and spicy, with a dried apricot finish. Drink now or hold.
James Suckling - winespectator.com, April 1998

With vineyards bordering those of the fabled Ch. d’Yquem, this 16th century property has produced increasingly impressive and refined wines since AXA Millésimes took over in 1992, particularly so under the talented Christian Seely.

This has a very elegant, enticing nose, but on the palate the flavours explode with exuberance. The power is never allowed to become clumsy here, with multiple layers of citrus fruit, marmalade and plump, ripe peaches ascending to an extremely long finish supported by zesty acidity. This wonderful Sauternes has a great future ahead of it.

Golden in colour and dispalying enticing honey, vanilla, andcitrus characters on the palate. Harmonious and well-balanced.

An outstanding wine in 1997, big powerful with flavours of honey and raisins. A truly exceptional Sauternes.

Rieussec is always such a benchmark Sauternes and seems to deliver reliably year in, year out. The bouquet is more opulent than some, with classic aromas of ripe stone fruit allied to a honied richness, while the palate has a creamy texture and lovely complexity and intensity.

The finish is long and balanced and the overall impression is of a deeply rewarding wine. Still, one can feel a great sense of freshness, which seems to me to becoming one of the hallmarks, and a very attractive one, too, of this vintage in Sauternes.

Highly extracted, muscular wine that is beginning to open out to reveal its luscious characteristics. In youth the wines of this chateau are often confused with those of Yquem. A wine with a long life ahead.

With a refined fragrance of honeysuckle, citrus peel, and barley sugar, this has very elegant sweetness on the palate but it is not at all blowsy, with good acidity to provide excellent balancing freshness. Not a blockbuster, it is however beautifully harmonious and truly fine, almost Barsac-like rather than Sauternes, with a very long finish. The wine is still undeveloped at this stage but one senses great ageing potential.

Breathtakingly complex and vibrant nose of lightly burnt creme brulee, white peaches, apricots, mustard seed and gorgeous light new oak heralds the way to the most magnificent mouth-filling essence. With the texture of melted butter and a perfect balance of precision acidity it feels as fresh,zingy and exciting as any wine you can imagine with a concentration you cant imagine. Total nectar. If the nose and the palate aren't enough to blow you away the 30 minute (at least) after taste is ethereal.
Simon Staples - Berrys' Sales Director

Tasted twice, and both times impressing with its finesse. A wonderful bouquet of honeyed orange zest and acacia, followed by great elegance on the palate with a laser-sharp sense of natural sweetness. Purity again the hallmark, as seems to be the case this year with the Sauternes.

Wow, what a wine! I totally agree with where the Chateau are coming from as I had the same feeling when I tasted the 2001. Definitely worth the wait but all we need to know is the price! So complex and perfectly layered, tropical fruits with the signature marmalade on the finish you really could drink this now. If you have this in the cellar and can be patient then I suspect you will be very happy in about 40 years or if you’re impatient don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed.
Ben Upjohn - Fine Wine Sales Manager 

The long awaited 2011 release certainly doesn’t disappoint and draws inevitable comparison to their faultless 2001. Wondrous flavours; pineapple, peach, mango, orange zest, honey, ginger and blossom. Voluptuous across the palate, multi layered but it is the balance and finesse which is simply remarkable. Precise and fresh, somehow ‘light on its feet’. An ethereal d’Yquem for which the word finesse could have been created. A long future awaits....
Martyn Rolph - Private Account Manager


In putting forward our notes on Yquem I can do little better than quote the charming, highly talented winemaker at the property, Sandrine Garbay, who told us that “ it was wonderful year for Sauternes with perfect autumnal conditions for botrytis, or noble rot. Acidities are on the low side but there is a great freshness and purity to the wine”.

Little to add, really, but we’ll have a go. The bouquet is very clean and appealing, with notes of stone fruit such as apricot and peach along with some citrus zest. On the palate the sweetness is crystalline and pure, not remotely cloying, and the finish is again wonderfully fresh and enticing. A wine that will come round quite early, I feel, and despite its apparent low acidity it does not feel at all heavy or unbalanced. This was the first Sauternes we tasted but subsequent experience indicated that this will be a year of great finesse and elegance for these wines.