Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WS 95
WA 99
ST 94
1990: An extraordinary effort, Yquem's 1990 is a rich and fabulously superb, sweet wine. This wine also possesses lots of elegance and finesse. The wine's medium gold color is accompanied by an exceptionally sweet nose of honeyed tropical fruits, peaches, coconut, and apricots. High quality, subtle toasty oak is well-integrated. The wine is massive on the palate, with layers of intensely ripe botrytis-tinged, exceptionally sweet fruit. Surprisingly well-integrated acidity, and a seamless, full-bodied power and richness have created a wine of remarkable harmony and purity. Certainly it is one of the richest Yquems I have ever tasted, with 50-100 years of potential longevity. An awesome Yquem! Anticipated maturity: 2003-2050+.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WS 95
WA 96
A sensational Yquem, 1997 may be this estate's finest effort since 1990 (although I would not discount the 1996 turning out to be nearly as good). The 1997's light gold color is accompanied a gorgeous perfume of caramel, honeysuckle, peach, apricot, and smoky wood. Full-bodied and unctuously-textured, with good underlying acidity as well as loads of sweetness and glycerin, it looks to be a great vintage for this renowned Sauternes estate. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2055.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
Beautiful golden-yellow colour. Concentrated, very attractive bouquet of ripe fruit, stewed fruit, and vanilla biscuits. Round, very sweet, and well-balanced on the palate. Plenty of volume and a suave quality marvellously underpinned by acidity. The fruity, spicy, mentholated nuances are accompanied by a really beautiful smooth, elegant texture. While this vintage had low yields, the quality perfectly reflects the drastic selection made during picking and blending.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
Beautiful golden-yellow colour. Concentrated, very attractive bouquet of ripe fruit, stewed fruit, and vanilla biscuits. Round, very sweet, and well-balanced on the palate. Plenty of volume and a suave quality marvellously underpinned by acidity. The fruity, spicy, mentholated nuances are accompanied by a really beautiful smooth, elegant texture. While this vintage had low yields, the quality perfectly reflects the drastic selection made during picking and blending.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
Beautiful golden-yellow colour. Concentrated, very attractive bouquet of ripe fruit, stewed fruit, and vanilla biscuits. Round, very sweet, and well-balanced on the palate. Plenty of volume and a suave quality marvellously underpinned by acidity. The fruity, spicy, mentholated nuances are accompanied by a really beautiful smooth, elegant texture. While this vintage had low yields, the quality perfectly reflects the drastic selection made during picking and blending.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WS 96
WA 98
Tasted single blind against its peers. Under blind conditions, the Yquem 2007 shines like a diamond. Nevertheless, it is initially rather taciturn on the nose, eventually opening up beautifully with touches of lemon curd, Mirabelle, and clear honey. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine definition and there seems to be a great deal of energy and vigor dispensed for your pleasure. There is such race and nervosity, and then that finish just purrs with harmony and focus. This Yquem feels just so alive and vivacious, yet there is an effortless quality here that is unmatched by its peers. Tasted January 2011. Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WS 96
WA 98
Tasted single blind against its peers. Under blind conditions, the Yquem 2007 shines like a diamond. Nevertheless, it is initially rather taciturn on the nose, eventually opening up beautifully with touches of lemon curd, Mirabelle, and clear honey. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine definition and there seems to be a great deal of energy and vigor dispensed for your pleasure. There is such race and nervosity, and then that finish just purrs with harmony and focus. This Yquem feels just so alive and vivacious, yet there is an effortless quality here that is unmatched by its peers. Tasted January 2011. Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WS 93
WA 99
Doesn't give much on the nose, with subtle lemon, honey, tangerine and apricot. Full-bodied and very sweet, with a long finish. Thick and compacted, with loads of mango and sweet candied fruit. Best after 2010. 150 cases made.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WA 100
"Denis Dubourdieu considers this vintage to be the finest produced by him, his father and his grandfather! He is a great proponent of the preservation of fine fresh botrytis fruit flavour and usually eschews any excess sweetness that he considers may smother it.
This year, however, he has found a much sweeter balance, at 155 g/l residual, but this in no way compromises the freshness of the spring flower aromas and white peach fruitiness (there is little of the usual dried apricots this year) and it is all balanced by a quite high acidity (4.5 g/l). The result is an unusually sweet but very complete and complex wine that will certainly age for ever.
Denis has also managed to produce 7 barrels of 'Extravagant', a 50-50 Sauvignon - Semillon blend this year, with 12? of alcohol and 320 g/l residual. It is a very fat style of wine, more on its power than the slightly more fruit-driven '07." --Bill Blatch, bordeauxgold.com
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Sauternes
WA 93
Tasted single blind against its peers. The Rieussec 2007 has a subtle nose of dried honey, pear, a touch of quince and crushed stone on the nose, the oak better integrated than last year. The palate is well-balanced with stem ginger and honeycomb on the entry. It is linear compared to its peers, there is no flourish on the finish as yet, but it has fine definition and hints of tangy marmalade and lemongrass that should become more accentuated with time. Tasted January 2011.