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  • Country ranking ?

    395
  • Producer ranking ?

    22
  • Decanting time

    6h
  • When to drink

    from 2020
  • Food Pairing

    foie gras

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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Unseasonably warm temperatures led to an early harvest for this vintage, which is not only intensely rich and sweet, but also beautifully fresh, racy and with a long finish.High levels of residual sugar have helped to create a richly honeyed example of this legendary Sauternes. Pure and with exemplary range , it will do well in the cellar.

Due to a very warm spring, the harvest started and ended early, with picking commencing in the first w...

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The Story

The pleasure derived from tasting Yquem is difficult to describe.

It offers a myriad of well-balanced, complex flavours that generate even more harmonies over time. The impression that remains is reminiscent of a quote from Frédéric Dard "the silence that follows a piece by Mozart, in which the listener remains suffused with the music". This reflects the fact that Château d'Yquem stays on the palate for a remarkable long time, providing a u...

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Wine Information

2011 Chateau dYquem Sweet Bordeaux Wine of the Vintage

2011 Chateau d’Yquem is the sweet Bordeaux wine of the vintage! The 2011 Chateau d’Yquem is also a contender for one of the top wines of the entire vintage. This beautiful Sauternes offers intense aromatics packed with overripe pineapple drenched in honey, roasted nuts, apricots, nectarines, white peach, flowers, orange rind and honey in the complex perfume. Thick, rich and intense, wit...

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Vintage 2011

The 2011 vintage is not easy to handle.

Smith Haut Lafitte not only makes great white and red wine from Bordeaux in Pessac Léognan, they are also at the cutting edge of technology. They were one of the first Bordeaux wine producers to begin using optical sorting, which came in handy with the difficult 2011 Bordeaux harvest. Fabien Teitgen, long-time general manager, joined us for a long detailed conversation about what happened at Smith Hau...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

32 tasting notes

Tasting note

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Written Notes

Crazy minerality to this, with lots of dried mango, pineapple and papaya on the nose. Botrytis-spice and nutmeg undertones. Full body, very sweet, with superb depth of fruit and richness. It goes on for minutes. Turns dense and concentrated on the palate. Speechless. Better in 2019

  • 98p

Pale gold colour. Lemon curd, grapefruit, honey, ginger and vanilla new oak. Sweet fruit -- dried apricot, lemon rind. Lovely richness, well concentrated, superb concentration, grapefruit, dried lemon, marzipan -- delicious. Fine crisp acidity. Finishes long and tangy. 94-96 points,

  • 96p

Yellow gold. Very focused nose of dried fruits with a delicate toasted note. Concentrated, fresh palate that is rigorous, dense and perfumed. Ethereal freshness imparts abundant mellowness, faultless quality oak and a hint of youthful sourness on the finish.

  • 96p

An early vintage. Early flowering, and started very early. A lot of freshness.’
Perfecto! Green yellow straw coloured and the nose is perfect – lemon lime custard aplenty. Interestingly, this seems almost delicate at first, before the oak kicks into gear. It’s bitter, biting, surprisingly acidic, ultra-long, warming and flirts between being too big and ripe but then also delicate. Love the lemon butter finish. This is magnificent and I love seeing the extra fruit here – makes it even more delicious. Sublime wine. 19.2/20, 97/100.

  • 97p

Pale golden. Rich, pineapples, lemon curd, some crème brulée, light lilies note nose, intense. Fresh acidity, fruity, pineapples, some spices, peach, rich and fruity, playful, layered, long finish. 95

  • 95p

Chateau d’Yquem 2011 99 points

What can be said here…  Compared to the 2001 (confirmed by Sandrine Garbay), this was an astoundingly fresh and complex wine, stratospheric in its flavour explosion in my mouth, and going the distance through the finish.  Even to the lay person this is an exceptional wine: thought provoking, smile inducing and exciting.  I mean this is a seriously cool wine.

  • 99p
Tasted three times - last time in April 2014. Consistent notes. This wine showed multiple botrytised aromas, a lot of sweetness and corresponding acidity, sophisticated touch, fabulous intensity, stunning balance, length and finish. Exceptional stuff.
  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Sauternes, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Investment potential

Average

Fake factory

None

Glass time

2h

Inside Information

The 2011 has a clear silvery gold hue, perhaps not quite as deep as I recall the 2010 last year. The bouquet is very fragrant and well-defined, with scents of wild honey, honeysuckle and a touch of vanilla. It is a refined, sedate and beautifully focused bouquet that does not need to show off. The palate displays superb weight in the mouth, even though at first it seems almost understated. Yet there is clearly a high level of spicy, botrytized fruit with notes of honey, orange zest and a touch of mandarin. There is no explosion on the finish; the 2011 is rather a lesson in control, complexity and nuance. It is utterly seductive. Drink 2016-2040+.

The 2011 commenced with picking on September 6, the fourth earliest in its history, although they waited until September 12 to really get going in the vineyard. The harvest was over four tries until the October 5, peaking on the last day of the second trie on September 23. There is a very low level of volatility compared to the level of residual sugar, which at 144 grams per liter is almost the same as 2010

Score: 96/98 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (200), April 2012
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