Chateau Rieussec Sauternes 2015
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James
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Robert
Parker -
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Spectator - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Generous nose with jammy notes of white fruit, evolving towards bitter orange. The attack is delicate, the wine then develops superb power with notes of fresh pineapple. The palate is full-bodied with well-integrated wood. Well-balanced and concentrated, the finish is long and lingering.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The is a phenomenal wine with dried pineapple and pear aromas and flavors. Full, very sweet. Incredible depth and power. Super complex.
Barrel Sample: 97-98 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 86% Sémillon and 14% Sauvignon Blanc, the 2015 Rieussec reveals a bright, pale straw-gold color and is a little closed at this youthful stage, yet it offers wonderful purity and depth, featuring notes of lemon marmalade, orange blossoms, beeswax and acacia honey with hints of preserved kumquats and peach compote. Very elegant and fine in the medium to full-bodied mouth, it features a racy backbone cutting through the earthy and citrus layers, finishing long and spicy.
Rating: 96+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Spice, honey and botrytis are the dominant characters of this full wine. The acidity comes later, with hints of citrus and lemon curd. It is still young and developing, but has excellent potential. Drink from 2022.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Intense, with warm peach cobbler, toasted coconut, orange curd and apricot aromas and flavors. Honeyed feel through the finish, but with a racy streak of bitter almond too. Drink now through 2040.
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Decanter
Delicate aromas and flavours of hibiscus and peony, plus orchard fruit and honey. Elegant, fresh, juicy and vibrant. One of the more refined Sauternes of the vintage.
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For several generations, Chateau Rieussec has been the leading name in Sauternes wines. As early as 1868, Charles Cocks remarked “Beyond any of the others, Rieussec produces wines very similar to Yquem wines”. Extensive pruning and the sparing use of natural fertilizer helps keep production low. The techniques remain traditional and specific to the Sauternes region. In terms of yields, the traditional reference is that a single vine should produce a bottle of wine. Here, though, a single vine produces about a glass of wine. Traditional fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats and can last as long as two months. The wine is aged for 16 to 26 months in oak barrels, produced mostly at Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) cooperage and half are renewed each year. Classified "Premier Grand Cru" in 1855, Rieussec has held its reputation and the quality of its wine, throughout the difficult years which Sauternes properties have been through. Albert Vuillier, who took over in 1971, has paid special attention to the development of the vineyard and pushed the standard of the wines produced to the highest level. This policy has paid dividends, since in recent years, Rieussec has received particular acclaim in numerous tastings of the "Premier Cru" of Sauternes. In 1985, wishing to consolidate Rieussec's position, Albert Vuillier entered into partnership with Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) to go even further in the elusive search for the perfect Sauternes.
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.