Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey Sauternes (375ML half-bottle) 2009
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
Product Details
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Very gold in color, this is a wine that seems initially closed, tight, only slowly showing its full panoply of richness, density and sweet final acidity.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 Points -
Wine Spectator
A more powerful style, with toasted coconut, almond and orange peel notes up front, followed by a dense core of creamed peach, glazed apricot and ginger, with a date-tinged finish. This should unwind soon enough while staying on the darker, tropical side of the spectrum. Best from 2015 through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I recall that in barrel, this wine was difficult to assess due to the SO2 present and even tasting it blind in bottle, I pick up on that sulphur. I sincerely hope that this will clear away with time because what is on the palate seems so promising. It is laden with luscious honeyed fruit, orange zest and mandarin, minerals and barley sugar. There is a wonderful viscous texture that remains precise, well-balanced and composed until the very end. I have to insert a question mark due to the sulphur issue, but I recommend either laying the bottle down for several years or affording it 12-24 hours decanting.
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James Suckling
Aromas and flavors of cider, honey, lemon and hints of pie crust and caramel. Medium-to-full body, medium sweet and a fresh finish. Racy and refined. Elegant style for Lafaurie.
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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.