Winemaker Notes
Château Suduiraut, classed as a Premier Cru in 1855, is made from grapes selected from the finest terroirs of the property.
This wine is hand crafted at every stage of its elaboration and reveals remarkable finesse and complexity and a golden colour reminiscent of the sun that made it possible. With age the bright gold evolves to a dark amber colour. With an extensive life-span, it powerfully and harmoniously combines fruit and floral aromas with roasted and candied notes.
Blend: 100% Sémillon
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Suduiraut (100% Sémillon) is a real stunner. Light on its feet yet wonderfully deep, the 2023 offers up a heady mix of tangerine oil, mint, white flowers, apricot and passion fruit. Readers will find a Sauternes that is more finesse than power. The 2023 is essentially a blend of three picks. The first was done at the end of September and accounted for 20% of the crop. The core of the vineyard, about 75%, was picked in a day ten window in October, following the September rains. A smaller third pick rounded out the harvest.–Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 98-100 -
Jeb Dunnuck
Medium gold-hued, the 2023 Château Suduiraut has absolutely riveting aromatics of honeyed orange, caramelized citrus, baking spice, and brioche. It's rich, full-bodied, pure, and ultra-seamless on the palate, with a deep, layered mouthfeel and incredible length. Based on 100% Sémillon and aged 20 months in 50% new French oak, it's heavenly stuff that will have 50-75 years of longevity. Drink 2026-2100.
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Decanter
A top-notch Sauternes this vintage, with both exuberance and finesse in vivid - and clean - aromas and flavours of pear, apricot, pineapple, mango, mandarin peel and ginger, cinnamon and bergamot tea. The palate combines opulence with the fine acidity of the 2023 vintage, as the estate handled the late summer heat wave and went through the vineyard three times, to be sure to get the best botrytis. Long finish, and potential for higher score once bottled. Ageing in 50% new oak for about 18 months. 150 grams of residual sugar.
Barrel Sample: 97 -
James Suckling
The purity and focus is so impressive, with a linear nature and precision that goes on and on. Full-bodied and very sweet, with layers of fruit and such length. A solid and muscular Sauternes with a classic structure. 100% semillon. 150 g/L residual sugar. Drinkable now, but even better in seven or eight years.
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Wine Spectator
This authoritative Sauternes starts off with an unctuous yet fresh feel. There’s admirable density to its notes of ginger, warmed peach, mirabelle plum, persimmon and green plum, with live-wire threads of bitter orange and almond that extend and support everything, plus tensile strength through the finish. A no-brainer classic.
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.