My wife and I had a Bucket List visit to Chateau D’Yquem on a very warm day in Sauternes last week. This was after a wonderful river cruise in Bordeaux for 7 days. The tour was fantastic! We utilized the services of Henri Challeau as our driver for two days of tasting, and he was awesome. I would highly recommend him for anyone needing a driver in Bordeaux.
We were able to tour portions of the vineyard, see the cellars, and during the tour they utilize some interactive displays on the floor that show the individual plots, the terrain, and the grape plantings. Yquem has plantings on the highest elevation in Sauternes, which helps to explain the exceptional quality. We saw a copy of a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Chateau, ordering 30 cases of the wine, 20 for George Washington and the other 10 for Jefferson.
They poured us the 2016 and 2023 D’Yquem, and the 2023 was spectacular. The 2016 has an abundance of fruit, but the 2023 has the fruit and the acidity to balance it better, IMO. @Michael_Chang, I know there is a recent thread about which young D’Yquem to purchase, and I think the 2023 is a future legend, FWIW. Our hostess thought that the trilogy of the '21-'22-'23 vintages will ultimately rival the '88-'89-'90 trilogy. She also said that “D’Yquem does not get better; it gets different”, meaning it is already wonderful to drink during its early years. A fantastic visit and their hospitality was second to none! Cheers!
Ed - Thank you for sharing this extraordinary visit, bucket list indeed. Great pictures, too. In my limited tasting history, the 01 and 89 have been tops and the 00 was the biggest surprise in that it was better than expected. Time must have stood still for your visit. Well done.
The hostess said that the '23 has all of the best qualities of the '21 and '22. She likes them all but it was apparent that she thought the '23 was truly special.
We used AMA, Abbie. This was a specific river cruise that @Tom_Blackwood from Expedia was a part of. We found out about it through Ridge Winery, who was one of the participating wineries, along with Mount Eden. It was our first time on a River Cruise, and AMA was outstanding. Great service and great food. There were wine-themed dinners and tastings featuring the wines from Ridge and Mount Eden, along with a few other SCM wineries, that were a lot of fun. I think there were around 150 passengers of so.
