A few years ago a dinner had been organised with wines from the second
Growth Chateau Pichone Comtesse de Lalande at the Taj Mahal Hotel by
their importer, Sanjay Menon. The dinner was followed by a bottle of
Chateau d¨´Yquem 1984 to mark the excellence of wines served. I had found it hard to take the second sip; as I thought it was off. Seeing everyone else savouring the taste and asking for refills I had to keep quite, with my confidence shaken.
This first growth Chateau of Sauternes, Bordeaux is really the benchmark for excellent and pure white dessert wines. My disappointing experience had been nagging at me. So when an invitation came to attend a vertical tasting of their ´99, ´01, ´97 and ´89 at the Vinoble (´vee-no-blay´) fortified and sweet wine Show I would be attending at Jerez in South of Spain, I immediately accepted.
Every Show has some high points. It did´nt take much for this tasting to be the highest point at Vinoble. People had been talking about it and running around , trying to arrange an invite days in advance. The ´punctuality recommended´ in the invite was perhaps a reason why the house-full audience waiting in a queue outside La Mezquita 30 minutes before the show time, as if to get in for the ´disco part y´. I would find out later that another nearby venue, ´El Molino´had been quickly arranged for a closed circuit TV tasting for 40 persons over and above the 60 at this main venue.
The show began with Carlos Salgado, Director of Opus Wine, the show organisers congratulating those who could make it inside, regretting that many others had to go disappointed. Pierre Lurton, the Managing director of the LVMH owned chateau had had to rush of to Argentina on a consultancy assignment followed by a quick trip to Vinexpo, Hong Kong so the proceedings were handled by the charming cellar master, Sandrine Garbay.
The wines disproved in every ol´ way my apprehensions and were truly delightful and reflected various styles and the effects of various vintages. One does not analyse these wines but just sits back and relaxes and later reminisces on the way various vintages have left an impression. Guided by Sandrine, here are the notes and perceptions left after the tasting:
1. Chateau dÝquem 1999: A classic wine that the chateau would love to repeat. Light golden colour, brilliant and clean wine has aromas of spices and dry fruits. The flavour has an excellent balance between sugar, acid and alcohol. This wine had been a surprise package or the chateau as it was already open on release and very expressive. Drinking now, It is expected to age well for 50 years.
2. Chateau dÝquem 2001: The darker golden colour wine had the highest concentration of sugar in the history of Yquem as Sandrine explained. Fortunately, it has good acid balance that makes it fresh and crisp yet allows or long term aging. With flavours of figs and apricots this is a wine that is a pure expression of noble rot, though slightly closed at the moment. It has a much longer taste that lingers on in your mouth much after you have slowly swallowed that sip. A long time age worthy wine , it is a very ´serene´wine that needs time to build structure.
3. Chateau dÝquem 1997: This dark golden colour beauty is very different due to the warm and dry vintage. Some humidity and rains during the elongated harvest season, that resulted in 17 sortings compared to the usual 3-4 allowed for a slow but regular noble rot, though not without the difficulty in grape sorting, gave a nice and big complexity to the wine.
This is perhaps many vintages rolled into one. Nose is different than other vintages with distinct orange notes. Density of the wine and slightly higher acidity impresses the mouth. It is slightly masculine, strong, dense and intense on the palate. It was quite closed from 2001-2006 and difficult to appreciate, added Sandrine.
