Wet and dry: the finest grain
While Yquem needs no introduction, it's surprising how few people remember that it has consistently been the best sweet wine in the world for well over two hundred years. It has been fortunate to have enjoyed beneficial ownership too, especially the recent period in the skilled hands of the Lur-Saluces family, now passed to LVMH but in the care of the renowned Pierre Lurton. With this seamless transition we've seen no change in the quality of the wines produced from this superlative property.
2016 began with a warm winter and wet spring, which included some disruption to flowering but fruit-set was completed with good, even bunches. The subsequent drought provided a great growing season for the fruit without too much hydric stress because Yquem's subsoil is clay based and retains the winter and spring rainfall. The drought ended in late September with a serious amount of rain that set off the botrytis at exactly the right time. Picking lasted over a month with four separate harvests as pickers selected grapes with the best botrytis levels. They finally finished on 4th November. From a Sauternes point of view it was a slightly odd growing and picking season, but has produced a very fine and balanced wine with enormous richness and the ability to age indefinitely.
Yquem have also released the 2017 Y (Ygrec), which as we know comes from one of the best vintages for dry, white Bordeaux in recent years. It was a record breaking early harvest, beginning on 16th August, when everyone by legend should have been on the beach. It has amazing, complex and pronounced aromas with a palate of freshness and lots of flavour. /CW
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment Spring 2019.
