Sauternes
Sauternes is where arguably the world's finest sweet white wines are produced. The appellation consists of five communes: Barsac, Preignac, Bommes, Fargues and Sauternes itself. It literally has an atmosphere all of its own, a specific mesoclimate of evening autumn mists which linger until well into the following day. The result is an ideal environment for the growth of the mould botrytis cinerea.
Half-btl
£23.00
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 5cs
Bottle
£30.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Stuart Rae, Private Account Manager
A luscious nose with bitter orange, orchard fruit, pineapple and booze-soaked apricots. Alongside a wave of fully ripe fruits lies a spicy weight with deep scented undertones of honey and dried mushroom. Then vanilla and roasted nuts. An impressive weight in the mouth with a touch more sweetness than I was expecting. The acidity is refreshing and the tropical characters remain prominent with a pleasing, ever so slight bitterness. There is more blood orange, fresh pineapple and roasted nuts, with a nectarine marmalade tang to finish.
Fine Wine team
Honey gold in colour with a glass-coating viscosity, the 2013 Yquem brings excitement and anticipation. Greeted by a graceful bouquet of nectarine, Seville orange, and dried apricot, under laid by scents of sweet ginger and nougat. Gloriously textured, the palate is delightful, a rich enveloping body with concentrated flavours of botrytis fruit, honey glazed peaches and vanillin are perfectly integrated and wrapped up with a cleansing acidity, effortlessly retaining freshness and balance. Incredibly rich, powerful and generous with 150g/l residual sugar, yet the finish is long, clean, and rewarding. Irresistible now, the 2013 d'Yquem is a real success which will evolve for decades, exceptional
Chris Lamb, Private Account Manager
Simply put they don’t come much better than this. Yquem sparked my love for wine and my enthusiasm and taste buds have just been refreshed with this delectable 2013. Supremely elegant and effortless it brings an instant sense of calm and relaxation to ones thoughts. Gentle aromas of soft white fruits are complemented by subtle yet vibrant apricot, delicate oak notes and a generous helping of botrytis. Beautifully silky and unforced, there are notes of dried papaya, pear and pineapple here, all cloaked in a thin sheen of honey and caramel that leaves you in an almost zen like state of well-being. The sweetness is perfectly balanced with a fresh streak that also gives rise to an attractive bite of apricot kernel to the long, flowing finish. It perhaps doesn’t quite reach the heights of the remarkable 2001 but it is certainly not far off. Yquem started my love of wine and this confirms just why it did.
Peter Newton, Private Account Manager
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Nick Pegna, SE Asia Director
Wow! Ch. Suduiraut is in Ch. d'Yquem's rear view mirror this year. It is almost as good and will be a fraction of the price. Enjoy it early.
Simon Staples, East Asia Fine Wine Director
Sauternes has bucked the trend this year by enjoying higher than normal yields, but the drought thickened the skins of the grapes and thus made it harder for the much sought-after noble rot (botrytis) to take hold. However, the long, dry autumn allowed the growers to wait and, when the time was right, they were able to harvest a good crop of beautifully sweet grapes but without huge levels of botrytis.
As such, Yquem displays a fabulous clean, pure sweetness, with aromas of citrus peel honey and apricot, and not a hint of any cloying character. The finish is very long and, while not as opulent as 2007 or as profoundly complex as 2001, the wine is very much more in the register of elegance, and thus bears comparison with the lovely 1988.
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
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.
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Magnum 1 x 150cl 1cs
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.
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 3cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
This will be an early-drinking Yquem with its beautifully pure fruit overriding the botrytis characteristics. It is still the Sauternes of the vintage, but this says more about the quality of 2006 Sauternes than it does about d'Yquem.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
With orange blossom, apricot and peach flavors – and a wonderful honeyed nose - the wine has huge concentration too and a perfect balancing acidity. Classically Suduiraut, with it’s fresh style of citrus and hints of kiwi fruit, it is a wine of great balance and purity. The finish is breathtakingly harmonious, with layers upon layers of complex, seductive flavours. – none of last year’s mangoes this time!
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
The 2015 Château d'Yquem is a blend of 75% Semillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc that was picked on the gravelly soils as early as 3 and 4 September until 21 October, four tries through the vineyard. It delivers 144 grams per liter of residual sugar, with six-grams of tartaric acid, a pH 3.65 and 13.9% alcohol. It has a show-stopping bouquet that is beautifully defined and very complex and exuberant, infused with greater mineralité than recent vintages - intense but not as flamboyant as say the 2009 Yquem at this stage. The palate boasts absolutely stunning balance. This is a Yquem without a hair out of place: fantastically pure, botrytised fruit caressing the mouth. That is as per normal. What distinguishes this Yquem is the sense of electricity that is imbued by that razor-sharp acidity. There is just unbelievably tension here and to be frank, there is little point in me continuing to write this note, because it is simply an astonishing Yquem that will rank alongside the 2001 and 2009. Drink 2028 - 2090.
Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate
Mid gold. Very direct and glossy. Edge of veg and toast. Real tension! Tense pear juice with lots of grip and attack. Lots of acidity as well as all that sugar. Really energetic. Long. Amazing persistence. So neat. Real attack. Massive apparent acidity. Drink 2027 – 2055.
Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com
Half-btl 6 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 3 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 3 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 3 x 75cl 1cs
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 1cs
Simon Staples - Berrys' Sales Director
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 6cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 1 x 75cl 2cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 1cs
Half-btl 24 x 37.5cl 2cs
Petit Guiraud is slightly drier than the château’s “first” wine, with a higher proportion of Sauvignon Blanc. Half is fermented in stainless steel and half in new oak. Yes, it has the apricot and raisin aromas associated with botrytis, but the emphasis here is on freshness and drinkability – the makers even suggest serving over ice, as an apéritif. The finish is long, mineral and moreish. Drink now to 2023.