Château d'Yquem 2010

Critic scores

• James Suckling97
• Wine Enthusiast97
• Wine Advocate95
• Vinous94
• Decanter90

The 2010 vintage in Sauternes

Vintage benchmark: 95/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Slow, steady botrytis gave wines of remarkable purity, more taut than 2009.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Sauternes. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The nose is not always very expansive but it is marked by fruits (apricot, mandarin, sometimes exotic fruits) and by woody notes (vanilla, toast). On the palate, the first sensation is always very silky, often sumptuous. It is followed by a more enveloping impression. Balanced between liquor and acidity (between sweetness and freshness). A few touches of bitterness can contribute to this harmony.

Blend of the 2010 vintage

Figures from the 2010 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 9 hl/haYield
• 28 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Fermentation takes place in barrels in order to promote the perfect conduct of this phase, the most delicate and mysterious of wine production.

Ageing

30 months in barrels

Food pairings

Foie gras, oysters and other seafood. Fish in white sauce such as sole or turbot. Perfect with hard cheeses.

Terroir

Here, in a rare alchemy, all the favourable elements of the Sauternais come together. The soils, warm and quick-drying at the surface, benefit from the heat stored by the large gravel stones. They also hold good water reserves owing to the clay nature of their lower layers. Many springs indeed come to the surface, and the control of the soil's water regime long ago prompted the installation of drainage. The great extent of Yquem has made it possible to plant the vineyard across a very wide range of the geological mosaic of the Sauternais. The extraordinary variety of soils that results is a fundamental element in the final complexity of the wine of Yquem.