x
  • Country ranking ?

    1 206
  • Producer ranking ?

    71
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    now to 2035
  • Food Pairing

    Salads

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The Story

With an annual production of 10,000 bottles a year, Y (pronounced "ee-grek" in French) is a rare wine. It is made from the same outstanding terroir and the same vines as Château d'Yquem. Although work in the vineyard is every bit as meticulous, the grapes are picked and the wine made in a different way.

 

Y was formerly made at the end of the harvest, with the last bunches left on the vines. These grapes, affected to varying degrees by Botrytis cinerea, but never with more than 15% potential alcohol, resulted in a very unusual wine. This explains why it has always been produced in small quantities and on an irregular basis since 1959. Y changed starting in 1996, but without compromising its unique character, to be more in tune with the times by displaying the qualities of freshness and crispness – essential for a modern great white wine. It was decided in 2004 to make Y every year. It is thus by deliberate choice that we now harvest certain plots of Sauvignon Blanc at the beginning of the vintage, making sure to pick perfectly ripe bunches. These are completed by Sémillon grapes picked just at that fleeting stage when the grapes have reached maximum ripeness, botrytis has just appeared, and the skins have turned a pinkish colour. This is the precise moment when this grape variety's tannins are soft enough for the aromatic potential of the best plots of clay soil to come through.

The wine receives close attention all during fermentation: light, precise pressing as well as temperature-controlled must racking and alcoholic fermentation in a new aesthetically pleasing, state-of-the-art vat room set aside just for this wine. The end of fermentation and ageing on the lees take place in barrels. Only one third of these are new, and the lees are regularly stirred (bâtonnage) for ten months.

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Wine Information

The 2000 vintage will long be remembered for above-average temperatures. Except for the unseasonable cool period around the 14th of July, it was constantly 2°C warmer than usual in March, June, August, and September. This inevitably led to very early maturity, with physiological ripeness reached at the very beginning of September in grapes that actually suffered from a lack of water.
The perfect ripeness of the very early-maturing Sauvignon Blanc in 2000 meant that we could pick a few bunches as early as the 12th and 13th of September. 
However, as of the 13th, we were able to create a more usual balance with the slightly less opulent Sémillon. 
Priorities were focused on Yquem in the following weeks, so it was only on the 5th of October, between the first and second passes to harvest Sauternes, that we could begin to pick grapes for Y again. This was because an even degree of ripeness in both grape varieties had been achieved in late-maturing plots with clay soil.

 

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Vintage 2000

Weather conditions / The 2000 vintage was proclaimed from the start as one of the best vintages of modern times. In the spring of 2003, I had many opportunities to find out if we really had a true dream vintage on our hands.

During the 2000 harvest, while doing a “personal inspection” in the vineyards, I noticed that something extraordinary was on the way. The grapes looked extremely healthy.

While the sorting table was rolling, I observed that there were few leaves, stems and weeds among the grapes. This is why sorting the grapes was so easy and quick. This must be one of the characteristics of the 2000 vintage, because normally even great vintages require a lot of work at the sorting table.

 

The 2000 vintage is a classic, extravagant and extremely long Bordeaux with dark and extremely dense wines, which have a huge concentration of fruit, length and superbly concentrated tannins. The tannin is not allowed to dominate, as it is well enveloped by the fruit. A scent of under-ripeness is only present in a few wines. One of the hallmarks of this vintage is an intense, deep aroma of dark berries, such as blueberries, blackberries and black cherries.

All red grape varieties have reached perfect maturity, including Bordeaux's most temperamental and unruly grape variety, Petit Verdot. Petit Verdot brings to wines the long-awaited addition of backbone and power.

Additionally, the grapes for whites, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle, ripened perfectly and produced extremely fine dry white wines. The sweet white wines have unfortunately transformed into some light, elegant and charming wines, based 100% on the September harvest. From October 11, it rained a lot in Bordeaux and this continued until the end of the year.

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

owards lemon yellow. Rich and intense nose, leaps out of the glass even outdoors, plums, honey, touch of wax, orange blossoms and minerals, even smokey with air. Fresh acidity, fruity, ripe, rich, intense, minerals, deep and almost heavy, long. 94

  • 94p
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Information

Origin

Sauternes, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Below Average

Fake factory

None

Other wines from this producer

d'Yquem

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