That either I or my good friend and confidante, Bill Blatch, should think Sauternes is the best wine in Bordeaux would come as no surprise to anyone. We were both a little surprised, however, to find out that Eric’s Le Vine’s Cellartracker users rank both Sauternes and Barsac higher than any other Bordeaux region. Bill’s written an article on his blog about this but I’d be interested in any views on the subject here. Do people really get more pleasure from Sauternes than any other Bordeaux? Are we supressing our love of the sweet stuff? Why are prices for red Bordeaux so high if we really like Sauternes and Barsac? Here’s the stats for mid-May:
Sauternes - 8,014 notes with an average score of 91.5 points
Barsac - 987 notes, 91.5 points
Pauillac - 16,874 notes, 91.0 points
St Julien - 12,473 notes, 90.5 points
Pessac-Leognan - 9,087 notes, 90.4 points
Pomerol - 6,624 notes, 90.1 points
St Emilion Grand Cru - 15,054 notes, 90.1 points
Margaux - 9,748 notes, 89.9 points
St Estephe - 7,468 notes, 89.8 points
(Apologies Eric if I have interpreted anything incorrectly from the site)
My study is rough I know. Maybe there are more tasting notes for d’Yquem in the Sauternes section and Cellartracker users may have a habit of writing more notes for lesser growth St Estephes. It strikes me that there may be some truth though in the findings though. Certainly Bill has found over 30 years of running red and white Bordeaux tastings around the world that Sauternes seems to produce the widest smile on people’s faces.
PS The only other regions to top Sauternes and Barsac were the Burgundy Grand Crus, Hermitage, Quarts de Chaume, the Barossa Range and a few small Italian regions - all of which have a greater concentration of top wines or a conspicuous absence of lesser growths. Feel free to fight the corner of any of these in discussion.
I love Sauternes and probably own more of it that red bdx. I do think you see score inflation with Sauternes when it comes to the critics and even a little bit in CT. Not sure how this can be explained but it seems that the rating scale of Sauternes starts around 92 and goes up from there.
Joe - Entirely fair point! Some people will like Sauternes (Oranges), some red Bordeaux (Apples) and some like both. It seems though that people on the whole might get slightly more enjoyment from Sauternes which is at odds with the current market - a mixed case of top Red Bordeaux costs up to 5 times more than one of top Sauternes compared to 10 years ago!
There are a very limited number of Sauternes producers compared to Bordeaux. Only the top ones are exported into the US. It’s as if only first growth Red Bordeaux were exported. It is not a fair comparison. If Chateau Simon, fopr example, were exported into the US, you’d see those avergae scores drop.
people who are not dessert wine experts score dessert wines higher
This is an effect I’ve noticed and I chalk it up to, unless a reviewer is specilizing in them (e.g. Roy Hersh or Andy Velebil), sweet wines are a niche and something most reviewers don’t bring as much rigor or experience to reviewing, and the RS makes them very easy to enjoy.
So that said, to the original question, yes for my palate Sauternes the best Bordeaux wine (the only one I cellar and drink regularly).
Bob - I’m still puzzled - why is that a bad thing? What is different to residual sugar as a constituent part of wine that makes it less worthy of praise in the form of points? It would seem strange to me to mark a wine down just because it has residual sugar, especially when that constituent is an intended part and parcel of the package. Why are we ashamed of admitting to like sweet things more when all our basic instincts tell us to eat ripe over unripe fruit?
Larry - An interesting thread. I’m sorry if I have bought up old arguments.
I definitely agree that there may be score inflation in stickies. Especially if one is to look at mean or median scores. There do not seem to be as many case where one takes a wine to task and gives it a very poor review. One factor might be that there don’t seem to have been stylistic chnages in these wines so there really is little classic vs. modern debate. To me Sauterne has remained more constant over time and across producers than red bordeaux. I can’t think of a sauterne that has changed its style and elicit reaction to doing so like Pavie has. If we have Pavie and Canon as very different reds, what are the equivalent sauternes.
Moreso, I don’t think some traits that are carefully attended to and very determinate in red bord reactions, are as determinate in stickie reactions. Oak, alcohol, excessive acidity or tannin, lightness or heaviness, even sweetness levels. Certainly the differences are factored into rating, but it does not seem like there’s the perception that many of these possess seriously unlikeable levels of these traits. To some extent the R.S. dominates minor differences in other traits.
Personally I like red bordeaux much more than Sauterne. I always enjoy a sauterne, but rarely am blown away and rarely dislike it. Bordeaux has more misses, but certainly more homeruns to me. Once one develops a pattern or niche, one is able to shift the mean by purchasing wisely. I like good Loire or Alsatian dessert wines just as much as Sauterne. I find they go better with most spots in an evening, other than as dessert or with cheese. I love foie and personally do not find sauterne a great match for a foie appie.
Though d’yquem certainly skews the equation. I would imagine that it drives the average score for sauterne moreso than any singular red. Yet it is very expensive, and probably posted on CT proportionately more than it is bought.
In particular, Sauternes can be attractive to relative wine newbies because of the ripe (tropical) fruit and high RS levels. Balance, subtlety and elegance aren’t necessarily rewarded attributes. By contrast, with aged red Bordeaux, balance, subtlety and elegance tend to be more highly rewarded by Bordeaux lovers.
Agreed John. Sauternes is made more on the vine than in the cellar but there have been some changes. Yquem itself is much more fruit focused and less opulent in style in recent vintages. Others too have gone through good and bad phases (Nairac, Sigalas Rabaud, Suduiraut and Rayne-Vigneau spring to mind as properties now performing well who have had ‘iffy’ periods in the last 20 years). There is a general tendency towards less sweet wines with perhaps a little more acidity as well when conditions allow it to balance whatever sweetness the vintage produces. Practices like picking slightly wider to retain some green grapes in the mix are becoming a little more widespread to counteract excessive sweetness and retain acidity and introduce more variety of fruit flavours.
Thanks Steve. Honestly I have not been lucky enought to drink many, many Yquems across decades at various ages. We should all be so lucky. So it has been very hard for me to identify a style shift with them, as opposed to attributing differences I tast to age and different vintage conditions.
Actually the newer tendencies you describe appeal to me. I obviously have an unusual palate, but I often wish for brighter acidity in sauterne, even over a wine where some others seem to find admirable amounts. Yet the opposite is often true with young Chablis.
eh,
much more crap bordeaux than crap sauternes being tasted. nothing deeper than that. If we want to go deeper, the sugar masks flaws from unsophisticated palates, many of whom drink cases of bordeaux for every bottle of sauternes they drink. imo
I’m not sure I buy the inexperienced drinker argument. I am part of a group of expereinced winos who like to vote for WOTN at our dinners, and we started disqualifying Dessert wines from the voting as they almost inevitably won. A well balanced stickie is a thing of joy and very hard to resist, no matter what experience level you bring to the table!
I am not saying it is a bad thing per se. Only that if you rely On scores from inexperienced tasters you may be dissappointed because you’ll find they have scored it higher than you would have.
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