I’m looking to snag some 2013 Chateau d’Yquem as a wedding year wine, and I’m curious how much of an aging difference I would see between 375 vs 750 vs 1.5L bottles. My instinct is to grab a few halves, because they’re cheaper (so, I can get more of them) and easier to drink in an evening. However, if a 1.5L is far more likely to go the distance, say 50 years (if I’m lucky enough to be around that long!), I might be tempted to lean that way. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
You must be a very patient person to contemplate waiting 3-5 decades to drink a wine. If anything, I think the idea of the 375’s maturing more quickly would be attractive. I would buy some of them and also some of the 750’s. Mags of Sauternes are only for very large dinners.
For whatever reasons Sauternes, as well as many other dessert wines, don’t seem to go up as much in price as the years go by, compared to dry wines. I’m sure people can point to counter examples, but that’s a generalization.
Perhaps that may change in the next few decades. But I don’t think you have to be in any kind of rush to pin down the wines today, in the exact format needed for 50 years of aging.
It sounds interesting, but I’ve never had a comparison between dessert wines aged in different sizes. I.e. taste a 1990 in small vs. large format. Large format sweet wines are also less useful from a practical consumption standpoint. I have 1 large format dessert wine in total, and lots of lots of splits.
I think just like in dry wines halves seem to age a bit faster, but not sure I could quantify. '88/'89/'90 halves from most Sauternes/Barsac estate seem to be ready right now, while I think 750s are generally a bit young. But halves can certainly go 30 or more years. I had '75 Suduiraut in half about 2010, was doing well. Assume mags would be even younger, but I’ve never bought Sauternes in mag.
You could buy halves and bottles, and one mag for 50th. But think of all the storage costs!
I tend to buy Sauternes in half just because that’s generally plenty for end of a dinner of 6 or 8 people.
But Arv, splits are 187 ml. 
I have a 15 liter bottle of the 2005 I can sell you. Will be mature just in time for your great grand children’s 50th birthday party.
whoops.
btw I “bought” my first Sauternes mag ever, when I exchanged my PC PA, and took that in recompense!
we’ve had some very old Sauternes (75 year old ones!) and I wouldn’t worry that much about them going over the hill.
They’re also somewhat tougher (I think) from a storage perspective so less worry about buying those aftermarket.
Thanks guys, some great info for me! Looks like I’ll just grab a few halves to hide away for now, for safe keeping, and plan to get anything else in the distant future.
And, thanks for the offer, Justin, but I think I’m good without your 15 liter. I wouldn’t want to deprive your great grandchildren of it!
2013 wasn’t a ‘collectable’ vintage in Bordeaux, and what tends to happen is that the sweet wines get the vintage reputation – and pricing – of their dry brethren, whether warranted or not.
So you may find that as the years go by, and 13’s get blown out, the sweet wines could also end up on attractive offers, even though critics seem to think it was a solid vintage for the sweet wines.
But perhaps Y’quem beats to its own drummer, and can ignore the rest of the market. Don’t overlook Climens which has similar aging properties.
This article seems pertinent:
The 2013 was superb en primeur although the style leans more towards early drinking than some older vintages. That said it should last 50 years with no problems, even in half bottles.
I once held a tasting of the same wine, 1982 Haut Bailly, in every different bottle size up to a Jeroboam. The halves were considerably more advanced and it sort of worked exponentially from there upwards. The conclusion was that the maturation of the wines seemed to be pretty consistent with the ratio of the cork area to the bottle size. In red Bordeaux I definitely wouldn’t recommend half bottles for long aging as a result of this - double magnums seemed to be the best.
Sauternes is, however, a little different because of the added preservative effect of sugar. My gut feeling is that magnums would still perform best over time but the difference between the different bottle sizes would be less pronounced.
The choice is yours - either half bottles for many celebrations as the years go by until the wine starts to fade (unlikely) or get some larger format bottles now and have an incredible party in 50 years time. Both ideas are sort of nice!
Ouch. Good article. Thanks for sharing.
My belief is that, given enough time, a wine’s value will eventually converge to what someone will pay to open it and drink it.
Yquem from a good vintage is not a bad investment in the long run. Half bottles, if stored correctly, will age just a bit faster than fifths, I’ve had several 1970 versions in half bottle recently and all were not “over the hill” in any sense. Even the 1962 halves I’ve had are still fine. So no worries. But I agree with others that the half bottle is the best format. Yes, the 2013 Yquem will still be available in 50 years, but likely only in bottles. You can still find lots of Sauternes in fifths from the 1960s and back 100 years, but half bottles older than say 1988 are rarer than hen’s teeth.
Congrats on your anniversary and I hope you get to share that wine with your spouse in 50 years.
Oh, and yes, buy Climens.
I love that multiple threads on Yquem have come up today. These discussions are awesome.
Thanks Steve on your insight to the 2013 vintage. I’m curious about your opinion that these are younger drinking wines. Is that because the blend of sauvignon blanc was higher, or is there something else that led you to that conclusion?
And I, more than most, am glad that Yquem did not hold their pricing from 2005-2010. They would have been out of my price range forever. At their current level they are a stretch, but I think ultimately worth it. I had a 1996 Yquem a few nights ago side-by-side with the 96 Rieussec, and both were enjoyable but the Yquem was in another league. Just a stellar wine each year, and I will certainly pick up a small amount at the current 2013 price to drink in a few decades. That said, if you do not already own back vintages and don’t have a reason to pick up 2013 (wedding, birth, etc), then consider buying some older vintages including 1995-1997 or 2003 at cheaper prices, or 1988-1990 at slightly higher prices but with 25 additional years of age.
Fred, always nice to hear your opinion here. One question: Are older vintages in 375s hard to find because they have been consumed or are not sold, or is it because less of Yquem’s production was bottled in halves before the 80s? I always assumed it was the latter, and if so then more recent vintages may remain easier to find. (Over the last 5 years, I don’t think 88, 89, or 90 have become rarer than they were before, but I could be wrong.)
Hey Ashish:
It’s an interesting question. I think you are right that in the 1970s and before there were less half bottles made than now, because before then sauternes were just another bottle of white wine to have with dinner. When they began to be positioned as “dessert wines” the demand was greater. In the 1980s, when I worked at the Wine House SF, I think our bottling requests were close to 50/50 bottles and halves, so if we sold 30 cases of Rieussec, we’d sell 15 cases halves and 15 cases 750s. I don’t remember taking any mag orders but there may have been a few, especially for d’Yquem. People who ordered the wine could request the bottling format, so there was clearly a greater demand for halves as I recall. I’d be curious to see if chateaux have records of their bottling efforts…maybe we can inquire if we go some day.
Also, I’m sure the halves are the first to be consumed as a rule, so that contributes to the fact that 30-40 years down the line, they are really, really rare. Oddly, they are also often priced at retail at a premium versus the full bottle price, so if a full bottle was $100, a half would be $65 -$75 which is sort of weird. I’ve seen a few full cases of halves at auction going back to the 1988 vintage, but before then not much. So I’m a big fan of buying and cellaring half bottles if you are going to hold them twenty years or more. At least you’ll know where they have been.
Not sure that I’d worry too much about the format. The traditional Tokaj bottles are 500 ml and they age for many decades. Sauternes isn’t the same to be sure, but it can also last well in the smaller formats. I haven’t had any 1/2s at the 50 yr mark, but I’ve had them at fewer years and they hold up just fine if you like older sweet wines.
I’d buy what you want now for one reason…provenance. You never know how wine is stored unless you buy on release. Don’t risk a deal later on a faulty bottle, buy it now and know it’s history.
That’s acting as if 50 years of storage doesn’t have a cost too.
I’ve had less problems with cooked / poor provenance dessert wines than dry reds.
It just seems like they are a bit tougher in that respect.