Heading out to a mini going away dinner (one of the kids is heading out to Italy for a semester). Can’t decide which vintage of d’Yquem to take to the BYOW place. Any recent experience with either vintage? First one of either I will have cracked. In splits if that bears on your decision.
TIA.
375s?
Yes.
Mike,
I haven’t had either in a while but my educated guess would be that the 1989 is more ready to drink. Hopefully some lucky folks who have had them recently will chime in.
Enjoy!
The 89 is drinking very well now. I would say go for it. I can’t compare to the 90 since I’ve never tried it.
Good provenance? I have heard about some less than stellar 1989s in 375s lately.
Cellartracker notes over the past year lead me to keep my 1990 happily tucked away for now. They are all over the place,which reads to me like the wine is going through an awkward stage, nothing like the simply brilliant wine I drank 8 years ago with seared fois gras.
'90 Yquem from a 750 about 2 weeks ago was stunning. It made a really good 86 Climens served next to it look somewhat pedestrian, and the 86 Climens is a really nice bottle of wine that I would consistently rate 95+ points fwiw. Since they are .375s, why not open both? If you don’t finish them, they may well be even better few days later.
Had a 1990 from 750ml not too long ago, would continue to cellar. Suggest going with the 1989 d’Yquem . . .
Mike,
The '90 is the bigger, richer, more intense, less developed wine, with more botrytis & acidity.
The '89 is a beautiful, but less intense Sauternes that (in splits) has certainly entered it’s plateau of maturity.
Haven’t tasted the '90 for ~ 3 years, but have had 3 '89’s over the past year (all from “Zod’s” stash of splits), all with virtually identical notes. The last one this fall.
'89 note here >>>
I’m sure they’ll both be beautiful - one of each … ? ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
Cheers! & Enjoy!
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I organised a Yquem tasting in Holland, and the cellarmaster of the Chateau was present!
All tasters, including Sandrine prefered the 1989 vintage, by far
Enjoy!
Utimately I think the 90 may well mature to be the better wine - I really like both vintages of Sauternes from 89 and 90 but the 90s do need more time. The 90 Yquem may not be near its zenith for another 20+ years yet.
I don’t mean to get on anyone’s case with this comment and I hope it doesn’t come off that way, it just made me chuckle reading it. There’s an amazing cellar diversity among the people on this board and sometimes we can be on completely different wavelengths. I don’t know about the OP, but I have one bottle of Ch. D’Yquem in my cellar and if I had two, it’s very unlikely I would be opening them on the same night. I wish it were different!
Is it a '21? ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Now I’m being taunted by the D’Yquem drinkers.
No, it’s an '83, but I saw a full case of '21 in a store in LA once. Seemed really expensive then; not so much now.
+1, the '90 will be tasted again for my 80th.
On the contrary, 83 is a very good vintage for Yquem if I remember correctly. I was going to say I’d swap a glass of 21 for my 67 but 83 will do nicely.
83 is very nice. My wife and I had it first in a restaurant in Orlando in 1990. They had opened a bottle and were selling it for $40/glass, which I thought was pretty good as it cost $180/bottle at the time. I expected a mini dessert wine pour, but they poured a real glass for us, maybe 4-5 oz. It was really amazing.
I had it once more at my Mom’s 80th birthday several years ago (I brought it).
Actually most of my D’Yquem experiences have been lucky breaks or at least good deals. I showed up at a Wine Club red Bdx tasting for $20 and they threw in three vintages of D’Yquem. A couple of months ago I went to a Bdx tasting with my group and the host brought a 62 D’Yquem. Then just this month we had the 2001 D’Yquem offline.
I would love to try the 67.
Thanks for the help. Ultimately decided to follow the advice here and go with the '89. Very, very good. Amazing gold color. Lovely restrained, but still exotic nose with a hint of toffee. But when you take a sip, it opens up and reveals all kinds of flavors of intense apricot, honey, melon, a touch bitter oranges etc. Went great by itself of with several of the simple deserts we ordered. Not the best d’Yquem I’ve ever tasted, but among the best. Wish I had more.
Mike, I am curious: what is your best Yquem ever?