As I have occasionally mentioned I have come into possession of some relatively well stored older wines, making me feel like M. Audouze once in a while. One of the wines was a 1961 Ch. Suduiraut, with a high shoulder level and a color verging on rust toward brown. While 62 and 67 are known as great vintages, 61 is not; Broadbent gives it 3 stars, good but overrated. Some friends love older Sauternes, declaring all wines post 1980 too young to drink. They also asserted that Suduiraut in particular does better in off years than in the great years, indicating that their 61 was likely better than say their 62.
Last night I opened the Suduiraut and it was truly great. [Note: though I feel like M. Audouze when I open the wines, I did not use his SOM, but just pulled the cork (gently) and poured the wine.] It was still fresh and lively with even a hint of botrytis. Some tropical fruit and absolutely no oxidation; light and lively.
Sweet/botrytiis wines seem to have an incredible longevity that I don’t quite understand. But they do. Not just Sauternes, but German ones, Loire ones.
I’ve had a few from the ‘20’s that were as brown as 60W motor oil…but still very much alive & kickin’.
The consensus is that '61 Sauterne’s are overrated, compared to the '62’s, because of the success/legendary '61 red Bdx. I’ve had maybe 4-5 '61 Sauternes and they’ve
all been very/very good…but not '62 in stature. Too little botrytis.
Tom
I’ve not had any Sauternes from 1961 but I’ve had plenty from the 1950s and early 1970s. My experience is even those vintages rated as “good”, like Broadbent’s 3-stars, still produce some really good wines that get even better with age. I’ve also found that they improve with slow oxygenation, as many of them have a slight mushroom or earth aroma upon initial opening that blows off after 30 minutes or an hour.
Please post tasting notes as you go through the wines!
One of my best memories of Suduiraut is 1928.
A fantastic wine with a smell which tetanised us.
Our arm was unable to move as we were stuck to the position of smelling and smelling a perfume of a unique quality.
I have drunk six times Yquem 1961 and I did not read my notes but my memory is positive : a strict or square Yquem, but good.
A very good wine of 1961 is Lafaurie Peyraguey.
Many thanks for the kind replies; interestingly the greatness of the 1928 Suduiraut is evidence against my friends’ theory, which would argue that in such a good year Suduiraut would underperform.
Last year I tasted Ch Coutet from a vintage from every decade back to the 1940s and it was very interesting. The essential character of the terroir shone through even from some less well known vintages and seemed to triumph over the different wine-making teams and techniques used over the generations. I tasted with Neal Martin and Bill Blatch and shot a little video of Bill’s thoughts which can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1432455970061