Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes (375ML half-bottle) 2005
- WS
- WE
- RP
- JS
- JS
- WS
- V
- D
- WS
- JS
- JS
- RP
- WE
- WS
- RP
- JS
- WS
- WE
- D
- WE
- RP
- WS
- JS
- D
- WE
- WS
- JS
- RP
- WW
- D
- WS
- JS
- WE
- RP
- JD
- RP
- WE
- JS
- WS
- RP
- WE
- JS
- WS
- D
- WE
- RP
- WS
- RP
- WS
- WE
- RP
- WS
- WS
- WE
- WS
- RP
- WS
- RP
- RP
- WS
- JD
- JS
- WS
- JS
- RP
- WS
- RP
- RP
- RP
- WS
- WS
- RP
- RP
- RP
- WS
- RP
- WS
- RP
- WS
- RP
- D
- WS
- RP
- RP
- WS
- WS
- RP
Winemaker Notes
Lovely, brilliant, golden-yellow color. Concentrated nose of apricot compote, dried fruit, and figs with vanilla and floral (jasmine and acacia blossom) aromas. The bouquet opens up after swirling in the glass to reveal extremely fresh citrus zest overtones that emphasize the wine's subtle refinement.
2005 Yquem starts out deliciously suave and caressing on the palate, with perfect balance. The fresh acidity and elegance complement the wine's restrained power, giving it incredible class.
There are strong flavors of gingerbread, orange nonette cakes and licorice followed by a gorgeous acid tang that underpins the wine's beautiful, long aftertaste on a par with the chateau's most illustrious vintages. The tremendously varied and complex flavors all seem to vibrate on the same wavelength, melting into a subtle whole.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesThe pale to medium lemon-gold colored 2005 d'Yquem opens with a provocative, mineral and earth-tinged nose of chalk dust, wet pebbles and dried wild mushrooms over a core of warm apricots, green mango, honeyed toast, ginger and pink grapefruit plus wafts of honeycomb, orange blossoms and saffron. The palate confirms the wine is still a little closed and shut down, offering achingly gorgeous glimpses at the tightly wound, intricate layers structured with a racy acid line and wonderfully creamy texture, finishing incredibly long and perfumed. This decadent flavor bomb still needs a good five to seven years in bottle before it is set to go off, but oh what a spectacle it will give then!
Château d’Yquem is an extraordinary place, at the very heart of Sauternes, with a hundred hectares of vineyards are planted on a mosaic of different soils. All the conditions are there to grow exceptional grapes and achieve the finest noble rot, the famous botrytis cinerea.
Through a sublimation process, the grapes reach a level a richness in taste and aromas that is simply unique in the world. Yquem preciously protects its selective harvesting secret, carried out by a team of devoted highly experienced local pickers, who have received their ancestral knowledge from the generations that came before them. Therefore, only the best grapes sublimated by botrytis cinerea are picked, because this is the golden rule at Yquem: never look for simplification, or shortcuts, and accept the risk of losing everything.
This is the price to pay to achieve excellence.
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.
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.