Make sure Sauternes is on your wine bucket list
Thomas Jefferson reckoned Sauternes was the best wine in France—he liked it so much he bought 250 bottles of the 1784 vintage for himself and more for his mate George Washington.
Sauternes is potable liquid gold. It’s perfumed with a heady mix of almost indescribable scents. People who try to describe this wine reach for words like honey, beeswax, peaches, marmalade, oranges, quince, elderflower, roasted pineapple, mint, toffee, cream, vanilla, and more. On the palate, classic Sauternes is rich, smooth, and luscious—sweet, but with enough acidity to stop it from being cloying.
This sweet vinous delight is all thanks to a little fungus called Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot.
While plenty of regions dabble in sweet botrytised wines (and some make superb examples), none—with the possible exception of Tokaji—specialise in it to the same extent as Sauternes.
Not just any region can become a specialist in sweet botrytised wines. You see, there are two forms of botrytis: a good one and a bad one. The good one is noble rot, and delicious, lusciously sweet wine can be made from it. The bad one is grey rot—and it ruins fruit.
For noble rot to occur, there needs to be a very particular set of conditions. Fortunately for us, thanks to its natural geography, those conditions occur consistently enough for Sauternes to specialise in this mesmerising, complex sweet wine.
Sauternes is sandwiched between the Garonne and the Ciron rivers. The Ciron is a tributary of the Garonne, and during autumn—when its cool spring-fed waters flow into the much warmer Garonne—an evening mist engulfs the vineyards of Sauternes until late the following morning. Then (fingers crossed) a warm shining sun burns the mist away.
The warm, moist atmosphere activates latent botrytis spores endemic in the vineyard. Its filaments pierce the grape skin, concentrating the juice inside, stimulating glycerol production, and considerably altering aroma and flavour. If the drying sun comes out, the botrytis is kept in check and the grapes’ potential for making luxurious sweet wine remains intact.
If the sun fails to come out and conditions remain warm and damp, botrytis can continue developing at full pace. The fungus breaks down the skin of the grapes and spreads rapidly throughout the berry flesh, allowing other fungi and bacteria into the grape. This is bad. This is grey rot—the malevolent form of botrytis.
And it doesn’t just happen overnight. It can take between 5 and 15 days from when a bunch of grapes is infected with botrytis to when it is suitable to make exemplary Sauternes. The whole vineyard isn’t infected at the same time either, so teams of pickers pass through the vines multiple times over days and weeks selecting only bunches with noble rot. Obviously, this is costly—and all the while there’s the threat of grey rot if conditions stop being just right.
It’s not unusual for there to be several vintages every decade where it is either impossible to make good sweet wine or can only be done in minute quantities. Even in good years, the amount produced per hectare is a fraction of what could be produced making conventional dry table wine. So, Sauternes is not only risky to make—it’s exceptionally costly to make as well.
Sauternes used to be one of Bordeaux’s most expensive and sought-after wines (with the possible exception of Château d’Yquem). Today, sweet treats are so ubiquitous and so cheap that these lusciously sweet vinous delights no longer have the same pull they once did. Given the risk, cost, and time involved—and the huge amount of pleasure Sauternes can bring—these wines are enormously underpriced.
Top 4 Sauternes to try
Of course, if you're loaded and have money to burn, go for Château d’Yquem. If you're like the rest of us, these four are snapping at the heels of d’Yquem in every way except price. Click the link to find a bottle near you.
- Château Suduiraut: known for precision and richness. The ~90 hectares are roughly 90% Sémillon and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. The estate dates back to the late 16th century, and Château Suduiraut has been under the stewardship of AXA Millésimes since 1992.
- Château Climens: often referred to as the “Lord of Barsac” due to its long, prominent history of producing wines of great elegance and finesse. The 32-hectare site is planted entirely with Sémillon and has been farmed biodynamically since 2010.
- Château Guiraud: known for rich yet refreshing wines—the notable freshness coming from the high proportion of Sauvignon Blanc (around 35%), balanced by Sémillon. One of the largest estates in Sauternes, it was the first Grand Cru Classé in Bordeaux to receive official organic certification (2011).
- Château Rieussec: known for a lush, opulent style and excellent value relative to its peers. Often considered the “second most famous” Sauternes after Yquem. The vineyard is approximately 90% Sémillon, 7% Sauvignon Blanc, and 3% Muscadelle.