Visits

Château d'Yquem
Sauternes, Premier Cru Classé Supérieur (France)


 

Yquem was for us one of those rare moments of discovery.

Walking below the magnificent pine trees elegantly perched around the château on a hill overlooking the entire Sauternes appellation, the uniqueness of this place is palpable. Yquem is, by all accounts, impressive. Dating back to the Middle Ages, the estate has been producing its renown sweet white wine since as early as the 16-17th Centuries. Its know-how was appropriately rewarded at the end of the 18th Century when it became the only Premier Cru Classé Supérieur of the Bordeaux region. And here is how the estate works its magic ...

Château d'Yquem, 2002
Although staunch red wine drinkers, it took only the first, small sip of Château d’Yquem’s gold to convince us that “sweet” wines deserve serious attention. The experience was exceptional.

The wine was of a clear golden colour, with aromas of candied orange and apricot, elegantly sweet and smooth, with well-balanced acidity and freshness, and surprisingly easy to drink. An exceptional wine, a real pleasure! Blend of 80% Sémillon, 20% Sauvignon Blanc. (Mar 2007)

Ownership & Management
LVMH (owner, since 1999), Pierre Lurton (director, since 2004). Sandrine Garbay (cellar master since 1998).

Winemaker
Sandrine Garbay
 

Vineyard
The specificity of the Sauternes terroir is interesting. Sauternes is located at the cross-roads between the Garonne and the Ciron rivers. As the Ciron’s cooler waters flow into the Garonne, condensation and fog result, and a heavy blanket of humidity lies over the Sauternes vineyards. Sauternes also benefits from its proximity to the Landes forest, which adds to the region’s humidity levels. (On average, Sauternes experiences about 92 days of fog per year.)  This humidity gives birth to a fungus called Botrytis cinerea, which transforms into the noble rot that serves to produce wonderful aromatic wines such as Sauternes. As the afternoon sun rises, the mist dissipates and the vineyards are dried, thereby concentrating sugars and acidity in the grapes.

The estate’s 115 ha of vineyards, planted in a single plot on an elevation are composed of 80% Semillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc vines aged on average 29 years. They are planted in soils composed of a gravely-sandy layer, lying on a thick layer of clay which itself lies over a limestone base. The estate uses traditional grape-growing methods, using only organic fertilizers every 3-4 years and never using chemical weed killers.
 

The grape selection at Yquem is extremely rigorous. Indeed, certain years, the estate will decide not to produce its sweet and dry wines if it deems the quality of the grapes insufficient. On average, the estate decides to forgo production of Château d’Yquem once every decade. (In the 20th Century, no sweet wines were produced in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992.)

Grapes are manually picked and sorted in the vineyard, in small crates, by 200 harvesters. (On average, harvesters conduct 6 passes per vine.) The grapes harvested for the Château d’Yquem must have a potential alcohol degree of 20°C (about 360g of sugar/L).

At Yquem, the average yields are 8 hl/ha. (On average, in Sauternes, yields are already very low, at about 25 hl/ha maximum.)
 

Winemaking
The harvested grapes are poured into a pneumatic press, with the stems, where they will undergo 2-3 presses. The resulting “cake” of grapes is then de-stemmed and passed through a vertical press to complete the extraction.

The harvested grapes are poured into 100% new French oak barrels where they will undergo alcoholic fermentation. Selected yeasts may be used only when the indigenous yeasts are not sufficient to complete the fermentation process. This process lasts about 3 weeks.

Each day of harvest is aged separately in oak barrels for 6-8 months. After this initial aging period, the wine is blended and pumped into vats to ensure its homogeneity. The wine thereafter continues to age about 3 years in oak barrels, in the cellars located under the estate’s park. At the end of the aging process, the wine is fined with egg whites. The final blend (in which Semillon dominates) is thereafter determined and the wine bottled.

To avoid infringement, the labels include a watermark representing the estate’s emblem and each bottle is engraved with a serial number.
 

Wines
. Château d’Yquem (120,000 bottles/year on average but varies depending on the year).