I fondly recall one of my formative moments in my wine education — my first sip of the 1979 Chateau D’Yquem, poured by a former mentor of mine, Claude Faure. “This is different,” I thought to myself. While it takes a lot of time to typically appreciate the wines of Sauternes, I have found that the gravity of wines from this house appeal to pretty much every palate that try the wines.
I have been highly passionate about Sauternes for decades and started buying Sauternes when I was in graduate school fifteen years ago. While I might not possess a top shelf range of D’YQuem wines like some of my colleagues, I have a few that are best consumed for special occasions. The storied Sauternes estate was the only Sauternes property to be given the the Premier Cru Superior designation from the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. The world wine community recognizes this estate as producing the best wines from Sauternes. The site itself is perfectly situated for achieving a high degree of botrytis in even the most challenging of vintages.
Earlier this year I opened one of my bottles of the absolutely epic 2005 Chateau D’YQuem which was seen by most critics as one of the top wines of the vintage. I did a 2005 vintage retrospective this past summer and found that wines from 2005 typically showed good levels of botrytis but also possessed a good sense of balance (http://www.washingtonwineblog.com/blog/2019/8/26/2005-sauternes-retrospective). I was absolutely blown away with the 2009 Chateau D’YQuem (WWB, 100) which is perfection in the bottle. My colleague and I simply stared at each other while sipping this majestic bottle. We didn’t need any words to describe how good this wine was. Learn more about the storied estate at http://yquem.fr/int-en/ Here is my review of the Sauternes wines from Chateau D’YQuem.
2009 Chateau D’Yquem Sauternes- Monumental, intense and irresistibly good, the 2009 Chateau D’Yquem is one of the great wines I have tasted out of thousands this year — and possibly the best wine I’ve tried. A mesmerizing honeyed hue, the wine starts out with more unctuous notes from the warm vintage. Honey, vanilla creme brûlée and pineapple upside-down cake, as well as brandy and Christmas spice soaked pear all come to mind aromatically. The palate is utterly seamless, with incredible viscosity and a fearless tension that races through the core of the wine. Obviously big, though fresh and lithe, this masterful effort has another twenty years to go in the cellar. Drink 2021-2041-100