Chateau de Fargues Sauternes 2005
-
Spectator
Wine -
Guide
Connoisseurs' -
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine &
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A great success everywhere in Bordeaux and absolutely brilliant in Sauternes. Nothing is excessive and, despite the wine's richness, everything is in balance.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
This is so creamy, almost milky in feel, with toasted coconut and cashew notes giving way to sweet peach, apricot and glazed pear flavors that glide along, while ginger, green tea, lychee and kumquat flavors extend through the finish. Shows terrific range and definition. Feels like it's just starting to open, and is in no rush. Drink now through 2035.
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
We have been familiar with this property for some four decades, and it continues to deliver more hidden value than just about any other producer around. Ownership must have something to do with it because it belongs to the Lur Saluce family whose stewardship of Chateau D'Yquem for centuries has brought them well-deserved fame. DeFargues is newer stuff. It was first given over to the making of Sauternes in 1943 and is still in the process of development with new acreage about to be planted on the estate. There has been, as long as we have known the wine, a bit of a family tie to D'Yquem in the level of concentration achieved in the vineyard and the richness and complexity of the finished wine. The 2005 version is nothing short of brilliant and will stand as one of the best wines made in the entire appellation.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 de Fargues has just a little more residual sugar than succeeding vintages at 142-grams- per-liter and an alcohol of 13.65%. Picked over five tries from September 27 until exactly one month later, it has a slightly more resinous bouquet than the mighty 2007 with melted candle wax, Seville orange marmalade, a touch of almond and peach skin. The definition is (as usual) very impressive. The palate is very well-balanced with marmalade and orange peel on the entry. There is good weight and presence here, although it is more contained and focused than the 2007. The oak is just a little more pronounced and it would benefit from another five or six years in bottle before broaching. Tasted April 2013.
- Wine & Spirits
Other Vintages
2006-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
The constant desire to maintain a blanace between expertise passed down from generation to generation and carefully tested modern techniques makes this golden wine a "blue note" among the great Sauternes estates.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Sweet and unctuous but delightfully charming, the finest Sauternes typically express flavors of exotic dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, dried citrus peel, honey or ginger and a zesty beam of acidity.
Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle are the grapes of Sauternes. But Sémillon's susceptibility to the requisite noble rot makes it the main variety and contributor to what makes Sauternes so unique. As a result, most Sauternes estates are planted to about 80% Sémillon. Sauvignon is prized for its balancing acidity and Muscadelle adds aromatic complexity to the blend with Sémillon.
Botrytis cinerea or “noble rot” is a fungus that grows on grapes only in specific conditions and its onset is crucial to the development of the most stunning of sweet wines.
In the fall, evening mists develop along the Garonne River, and settle into the small Sauternes district, creeping into the vineyards and sitting low until late morning. The next day, the sun has a chance to burn the moisture away, drying the grapes and concentrating their sugars and phenolic qualities. What distinguishes a fine Sauternes from a normal one is the producer’s willingness to wait and tend to the delicate botrytis-infected grapes through the end of the season.