Sauternes

Make sure Sauternes is on your wine bucket list! Why?

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 that do try to describe this wine throw out words like honey, beeswax, peaches, marmalade, oranges, quince, elderflower, roasted pineapples, mint, toffee, pepper, cream, morning dew, spring water, vanilla, and many many more. On the palate, a classic Sauternes is rich, smooth and lusciously sweet, but with a sufficient undertone of acidity to stop it from being cloying.  

Chateau d'Yquem, the most prized of all Sauternes | © FreeProd / stock.adobe.com

This sweet vinous delight is all thanks to a little fungus called botrytis cinerea ... AKA Nobel Rot. While plenty of regions dabble in the production of sweet botrytized wines, and some making superlative examples, none (with the possible exception of Tokaji) specialize in it to the same extent as Sauternes.  

Now, not just any region can become a specialist in sweet botrytized wines. The Languedoc couldn’t, for example, shrewdly identify a gap in the market for reasonably priced botrytized wine and then just go for it. No! You see, there are two forms of botrytis. A good one and a bad one. The good one is referred to as noble rot and delicious, lusciously sweet wine can be made from it. The bad, is known as grey rot and probably not even the pigs would eat it. For the good, benevolent, noble rot to occur, there needs to be a very particular set of conditions.   

Fortunately for us, thanks to its natural geography, these rather particular conditions occur consistently enough for Sauternes to specialize in this mesmerizing, 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 it’s cool spring-fed waters flow into the much warmer Garonne an evening mist engulfs the vineyards of Sauternes until late the following morning, when, hopefully, a warm shinning sun burns the mist away.    

Bottles of liquid gold - sweet botrytis wine - Sauternes | © Pascal Moulin / stock.adobe.com

The warm, moist atmosphere activates the latent botrytis spores endemic in the vineyard. Its filaments piercing the grapes skin, concentrating the juice inside, stimulating glycerol production, and considerably altering the aroma and flavor of the grapes. If the drying sun comes out (fingers crossed) the botrytis is kept in check and the grapes’ potential for making quality, luxurious, sweet wine remains intact.  

If the sun fails to come out, however, and conditions remain warm and damp then 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.

Now, all this doesn’t just happen over night. 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. And, the whole vineyard isn’t infected all at the same time. Hence, teams of pickers go through the vineyard multiple times over the days and weeks selecting only the bunches with noble rot. Obviously, this is a costly exercise and draws out the harvest period. All the time with the threat of grey rot hanging over head if the conditions don’t remain 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 so in minute quantities. And, even in good years, the amount produced per hectare of vineyard is a fraction of what could be produced making conventional, dry table wine. So, there you have it, 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. Not anymore (with the possible exception of Chateau d’Yquem). Today, sweet treats are so ubiquitous and so cheap these lusciously sweet, gratifying vinous delights no longer have the same pull that they used to. Given the risk, cost, and time involved in its production 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 Chateau 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 on the link to find a bottle near you!

1. Château Suduiraut: know for their precision and richness. The 90-odd hectares of vines are roughly 90% Sémillon and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. The estate dates back to the late 16th century when Léonard de Suduiraut married the heiress to the property, Nichole d'Allard. The Château has been under the stewardship of AXA Millésimes since 1992.
   
   
2. Château Climens: oftern refered to as the "Lord of Barsac" due to its long prominent history of producing exceptional wines of great elegance and finesse. The estate was established inthe 16th century and passed through several families before being acquired by Lucien Lurton in 1971 befor being passed on to his daughter Bérénice Lurton in 1992. The 32 hectare site is planted entirely with Sémillon and has been farmed biodynamically since 2010.  
   
   
3. Château Guiraud: know for its rich yet refreshing wines. the notable freshness coming from the high level of Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up 35% of the 128 hectare site (the balancing 65% coming from the ubiquitos Sémillon). One of the laregest estates in Sauternes if was the first Grand Cru Classé in Bordeaux to receive official organic certification in 2011. It was founded in 1766 by wine merchant Pierre Guiraud and was aquired by a consortium of interested parties in 2006, one of whom is Robert Peugeot of the Peugeot car family.
   
   
4. Château Rieussec: Known for lush, opulent style and excellent value relative to peers. Often considered the “second most famous” Sauternes after Yquem. The estate was confiscated from the Carmelite monks of Langon during the French revolution and sold as a national asset. Its had a succession of owners and was bought by Damines Barons de rothschild in 184 and has been under their stewardship since. The 90-odd hectares are made made up of approximately 90% Sémillon, 7% Sauvignon Blanc, 3% Muscadelle.