Château d'Yquem

33310 Sauternes

Tél. : +33 (0)5 57 98 07 07

contact@yquem.fr

https://yquem.fr

Château d’Yquem, Premier Cru Supérieur de Sauternes

All about Château d'Yquem, Sauternes Premier Cru Supérieur, classified in 1855

More than a unique and exceptional wine: a stunning wine born of a miracle of nature

Both a myth and a "miracle of nature", as the saying goes, Château d'Yquem is a testimony to over 500 years of history in the heart of the Bordeaux vineyards. From 1593, with a notable Jacques Sauvage, through the Lur Saluces lineage to LVMH in 1999, Yquem is a unique estate that stands out from the rest. The one and only Premier Cru Supérieur in the famous 1855 imperial classification, the legend of Yquem has been nurtured, generation after generation, by owners who are committed to tradition and open to modernity, much to the delight of lovers of exceptional wines the world over. With Yquem, the promise of singular moments when tasting gold in the bottle reveals all the complex art of mastering botrytis cinerea, the noble rot behind the greatness of this unparalleled wine.

Sweet wines under English and then French flags.

It all began in the Middle Ages, when the estate belonged to the King of England, Duke of Aquitaine at the time. It was then in 1453 that Charles VII, attached to the region by the French crown, gave the estate its present nationality. A century and a half later, in 1593, Jacques Sauvage, a local nobleman, became tenant of Yquem and undertook the construction of the château. He built up the present vineyard in stages, sectioning it plot by plot. In 1711, ennobled under the reign of Louis XIV, the Sauvage family became full owners of the Yquem estate. In 1785, the last heiress of the Sauvage d'Yquem family, Françoise Joséphine, married Louis Amédée de Lur-Saluces (colonel of a cavalry regiment). The latter died of a fall, leaving the estate to his widow, who developed the reputation of Yquem wines, already highly appreciated by the great connoisseurs of the time. Despite a difficult period during the French Revolution, she succeeded in preserving the family heritage and making the estate prosper. In 1826, she had the winery built, a bold innovation for its time that transformed the estate into a winery and developed its international reputation. 

What had been a family possession became internationally recognized thanks to Romain-Bertrand de Lur-Saluces, grandson of Françoise Joséphine, who succeeded her after her death in 1851. The estate was subsequently elevated to the rank of Premier Cru Supérieur at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855. In the second half of the 19th century, the estate enjoyed a long period of prosperity. In 1859, the Grand Duke of Constantine, brother of the Tsar, bought a barrel of Yquem for 20,000 gold francs, an incredible price for the time. What's more, during the Meiji era, Japan opened up to the world and discovered the pleasures of Yquem wine. After Romain-Bertrand's death, the estate was taken over by his son Amédée de Lur-Saluces, followed by his younger brother Eugène. This phase in Yquem's history came to an end with the phylloxera crisis and the Great War. 

In 1914, Château d'Yquem was transformed into a military hospital, while Eugene's son Bertrand de Lur-Saluces assumed his role in the trenches. At the end of the war, he took over the management of the estate for half a century. A guarantor of the Yquem philosophy, he opposed chaptalization for his wine and defended the family estates even during the crisis of the 1930s. As President of the Union des Crus Classés de la Gironde, he is at the heart of the defense of the Grands Crus and helps to define the Sauternes AOC. He was also one of the main proponents of "bottling at the château", to guarantee authenticity. Re-enlisted during the Second World War, he returned to his estate intact after being taken prisoner for 2 years, and continued to develop the estate until his death.

In 1966, Bertrand de Lur-Saluces appointed one of his brother Amédée's sons, Alexandre de Lur-Saluces, to succeed him at the head of the estate. Despite a difficult start, with a series of bad years, a violent trading crisis and high inheritance taxes weakening Yquem, the estate was saved by better management and an excellent 1975. In the 1980s, better harvests enabled new investments to be made, with a production potential that was even more demanding and technically advanced than in the past.

Château d'Yquem was partially acquired in 1996 by the LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton group, which took a 35% stake. In 1999, LVMH fully acquired this jewel after the property had belonged to the Sauvage and Lur-Saluces families for more than three centuries. Management was entrusted to Pierre Lurton in 2004 - the trusted and talented man of the vine, who had already been running Château Cheval Blanc since 1999, when it was acquired by Bernard Arnault and Albert Frères in 1998 - and who has been promoting its modernity, authenticity, know-how and openness to the present day ever since. 

A sublime terroir with an air of Tuscany

The vineyard is located on a terroir where all the favorable elements of the Sauternes region are concentrated. It extends over a wide range of the geological mosaic, mainly gravelly hilltops on a clay substratum with warm soils benefiting from the accumulation of heat by the large gravelly pebbles. It also has a good water reserve thanks to the clayey nature of its sub-layers. What's more, numerous springs are outcropping, which has enabled a 100km drainage system to be set up since the 19th century. This variety of soils is fundamental to the complexity of Yquem wines. Added to this is a veritable microclimate. It confirms the estate's ideal location, but is also fragile, as it can be subject to the slightest hazard: too dry a climate would stop contamination, too much water would stop concentration, and other moulds could appear and spoil the grapes. All this explains the low yields, which can go as far as abandoning the entire harvest, as was the case in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992 and 2012. Yquem can afford the "financially delicate" luxury of preferring not to produce certain vintages if they are deemed unfit to embody the greatness of the wine. A rare occurrence in the world of wine and grands crus, to say the least. 

The estate boasts 113 hectares of vineyards, but only around 100 are actually cultivated. Two to three hectares of vines that are too old are uprooted each year, then left to lie fallow for a year before being replanted. It will take at least 5 years for the new vines to produce grapes up to Yquem's standards. Only two grape varieties are planted in the vineyard: Semillon (75% of the vineyard), which dominates for its richness and volume, and Sauvignon (25% of the vineyard) for its finesse and aromas. The vineyard is carefully tended, and the teams working on the estate continue to cultivate the soil and manage the vines in the traditional way, under the direction of the vineyard manager.

Botrytis Cinerea (noble rot) at the heart of a complex and fragile ecosystem.

Château d'Yquem respects traditional practices that have been in place for at least two centuries, making it easy to understand why the château's sustainable character is possible. If Château d'Yquem wine is called "sweet wine", it's because of the presence of Botrytis Cinerea, known as "noble rot", a fungus on which the entire harvest is based. This fungus roasts and concentrates the grapes in sugar and aroma. Its action is favored by the morning fog that falls on Sauternes from the Ciron and Garonne rivers, requiring the utmost respect for natural balance. 

The stability of the vineyard is an important factor: 90% of the plots have remained the same for a century and a half. The terroir is unchanged and preserved, with soil that has never been chemically weeded, and worked entirely by ploughing, scratching and disking. Biodiversity is maintained with 50 hectares of pine and acacia forests, 35 hectares of meadows grazed by Bazadais cows, and parks and gardens. Manuring is organic, made up of farmyard manure and composted 50/50 with crushed vine shoots.  Cluster worm butterfly trapping has been carried out for 50 years, and mating disruption has been generalized throughout the estate. This important and meticulous work is carried out by staff who have inherited and passed on true artisanal skills. Another special feature of Yquem is the presence of a weather station since 1896, underlining the pioneering and inquisitive nature of the teams. What's more, they use local materials such as acacia for stakes and poles, as well as rushes and marsh wicker for ties.     

The subtle art of harvesting by "successive selections".

Yquem's harvesting method is an ancestral one that has remained unchanged for centuries. It's no simple matter to harvest the grapes that are deemed suitable for making a great sweet wine, and Yquem in particular. As it evolves, botrytis contaminates the berry, turning it brown. The skin of the berry is permeable, allowing water to evaporate. As for the sugar, it is concentrated inside to reach a level well beyond normal ripening of 18 to 30˚d potential alcohol, which is the equivalent of 300 to 600 grams of sugars per liter. The aim is to obtain a must with 20˚ potential alcohol, which means a long wait with a high risk of losing the harvest as winter approaches. Yquem's low yield (9 hectolitres per ha on average) is explained by the change from 18 to 20˚ entailing a reduction of around 50% in juice volume. Next, 200 cutters, organized into 4 troops, scour the vineyards, picking the botrytized grapes that have reached the optimum stage of concentration. This harvest requires several successive sortings to ensure that only the "roasted" grapes are picked, having been transformed by noble rot. Spread out over 6 weeks, an average of five to six selections are required. In some years, more than 10 selections are necessary.

Once the botrytized berries have been harvested at the "rotten full" stage, everything begins with pressing when the harvest arrives at the vat-house. Pressing takes into account the texture of the berries. Unlike other whites, three to four pressings are carried out at Yquem to increase the sugar content and quality of the juices. The first pressing is done in a pneumatic press which yields 75% of the juice being around 19˚ potential alcohol. The second, represents 15% of the juice at around 21˚ and the third can reach 25˚. The juice is then put back into a vertical press of very small capacity, which will finish drying it. Yquem is unique in that it ferments in barrels. For each harvest, the barrels are new and traditionally made from oak staves. To control the analytical parameters of fermentation, each barrel is identified and the batches monitored daily by the château's in-house laboratory. When the musts are active, fermentation may last only two weeks; when the musts are quieter, it may last six weeks. Still in barrels, each day's harvest is vinified separately for 6 to 8 months. A pre-blend is carried out among the batches in the spring following the harvest, and then transferred to the ageing cellar, where it remains for 20 months. 15 rackings are carried out to eliminate the coarsest deposits. The finest suspensions are removed by light "fining". Selection continues in the cellar, with blind tastings to decide on the final Château d'Yquem blend.

Yquem, a wine of exemplary uniqueness.

Produced at around 100,000 bottles, which may seem both a lot and a little, let's not forget that the yield of this wine remains very low: 9 hectolitres per hectare on average. In other words, each foot yields roughly one glass of wine. That's not a lot, and it's what makes this wine, in addition to its stylistic grandeur, so rare. It's easy to understand why this wine is a "miracle of nature". Yquem is undoubtedly the most famous sweet wine in the world, a wine without equal, incomparable in short, described with perfection by the French novelist Frédéric Dard (author of San Antonio) who said that Yquem was « light drunk... ». It's difficult to sum up Yquem's wines objectively, especially as each vintage reinvents their history without denying a certain eternal style. A syrupy wine by nature, its liqueur is of exemplary nobility, great precision and breathtaking freshness, ensuring its balance: never syrupy, never heavy, but rather airy and taut. Liveliness is the heart of the reactor, and the result is a feeling of balance, of harmony between every component. And d'Yquem is built to keep, the grand garde capable of defying decades, even centuries.
Depending on the vintage, the blend is around 70-80% Semillon and 20-30% Sauvignon. The radiance and brilliance of the robe remind us of the light spoken of by the novelist Frédéric Dard. But wine is above all made of gold. Yquem's style is generous, with powerful, fresh notes of ripe fruit in the register of exotic fruits, white-fleshed and yellow-fleshed. Peach, apricot, lemon, mango, pineapple, sometimes papaya... It smells of the islands and the freshness of Menton citrus. The palate, never heavy, coats the tongue with a silky, barely creamy sensation, reminding us that Yquem is a vibrant wine with ardor, acidity and precision always placed where it needs to be. This is great art!

Yquem 2021 

Made from 65% Semillon and 35% Sauvignon Blanc, this Yquem 2021 immediately displays freshness and a certain olfactory tension with expressions of mandarin orange, pineapple, pear and cedar. Agitation reveals citrus fruits (lemon zest), broom flowers and candied orange. Straightforward and vibrant on the palate, the wine is dense, unctuous without heaviness, powerful and complex, ending with candied bitters that give extra gain and freshness to a palate that's not lacking in it from the very first impressions. What precision! Grand d'Yquem in the tradition of 1997, 1999 and 2001, as telling examples.

« Y » d’Yquem

This wine was born in 1959 and is a dry white. What a novelty in the heart of Sauternes and the Sauternes region! However, Yquem set the ball rolling long before anyone else in terms of dry white production in the Sauternes region, while the late 2000s saw a strong comeback for this type of wine among the Sauternes Classified Growths. Named "Y", this wine comes from the same terroir and plots as the grand vin. Based essentially on Sauvignon and benefiting from an early ripening, "Y" is a rather rare wine, as only 10,000 bottles are produced per vintage, vintage permitting. Originally, the estate produced this wine at the end of the harvest with the last bunches still on the vine, barely concentrated and whose berries had not been fully attacked by botrytis cinerea. From 2004 onwards, the château intends to produce this wine every year with the same expertise and care as its first wine. As this wine is not entitled to the Sauternes appellation, it claims the Bordeaux Blanc Sec appellation, but in a class of its own, it is unique and atypical.

Yquem's great vintages

1785-1787-1811-1847-1900-1921-1926-1928-1929-1934-1937-1945-1947-1949-1953-1955-1959-1962-1967-1970-1971-1975-1986-1988-1989-1990-1997-1999-2001-2005-2007-2009-2010-2011-2014-2015-2017