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Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes - $4,999.99

Wine Details

Vintage:	1989
Price:	$4,999.99
Producer:	Chateau d'Yquem
Region:	Sauternes
Varietal:	Sauternes Blend
Container Size:	5 L
Flavors:

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Product Description

Discovering Chateau d'Yquem starts with the bouquet. Although not always very outgoing in young vintages, it is marked by fruit (apricot, mandarin, and occasionally tropical fruit) and oak (vanilla and toasty aromas). Older vintages, on the other hand, have an extraordinarily complex fragrance as soon as the bottle is opened. The bouquet is amazingly subtle, with hints of dried fruit (dried apricot, prune, stewed fruit, and marmalade), spice (cinnamon, saffron, and liquorice), and even flowers (linden blossom, etc.).The first impression of Chateau d'Yquem on the palate is always very silky, and often sumptuous. It then fills out, "coating the palate". This fine wine has a strong, but never overbearing character, with great elegance and poise. It always maintains a balance between sugar and acidity (sweetness and freshness). A touch of bitterness can also contribute to the overall harmony. Chateau d'Yquem's aftertaste is legendary, and it tells another story, which lasts and lasts...

Food Pairings

Category	Pairing
Cheese	Mozzarella, Feta, Goat Cheese, Parmesan, Ricotta, Swiss
Red Meat	Irish Stew, Pate or Liver, Liver
Vegetables	Asparagus Quiche
Fruits & Nuts	Citrus Fruits
Vegetables	Tomato
Fish or Shellfish	Lobster Salad, Sea Bass, Poached Salmon
Desserts	Macarons
Sauces	White Wine Sauce
Herbs & Spices	Anise, Fennel Seed, Tarragon, Basil, Cilantro, Coriander, Curry, Dill, Thyme

Wine Terms

Name	Value
Dessert Wine	Dessert wine usually means sweet wine. Port, some Sherries, Sauternes, Barsacs, Banyuls, "late harvest" wines, and sweet Rieslings. The Rieslings usually considered dessert wines are Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. US government regulations on wine naming also include any fortified wine, dry or sweet. Some fortified wines are sweet because the fermentation process is halted by adding alcohol before all the sugars have been converted to alcohol.
Bordeaux	A region in western France that grows famous red wines from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc grapes and white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle grapes. Situated on the Atlantic coast, Bordeaux has a maritime climate with warm summers and fairly mild winters as well as an abundance of rain during harvest time. When young, the finest red Bordeaux wines have a deep cranberry hue and aromas of blackcurrants, plums, spice, cedar, and cassis. For the first ten years or so these wines can be very dry, with tannin masking the fruity flavors. Eventually the wines turn garnet, and develops an extraordinarily complex bouquet and flavor as well as softer tannins. The finest red Bordeaux wines still take 20 years or so before reaching their maturity. Two distinct red wine production zones exist within the Bordeaux region; the Left Bank and the Right Bank. The Left Bank vineyards are located west of the Garonne River and the Gironde Estuary, into which the Garonne empties. The Right Bank vineyards are east and north of the Dordogne River and east of the Grionde Estuary. Of the various wine districts on the Left and Right Banks, four are the most important for red wines: Haut-Médoc; Pessac-Leognan, St-Emilion, and Pomerol. For white wines, the most important are Graves and Pessac-Leognan.
France	France is the standard bearer for all the world’s wines, with regard to the types of grapes that are used to make wine and with the system of defining and regulating winemaking. Its Appellation d’Origine Controlee, or AOC system, is the legislative model for most other European countries. Most French wines are named after places. The system is hierarchical; generally the smaller and more specific the region for which a wine is named, the higher its rank. There are four possible ranks of French wine, and each is always stated on the label: Appellation Contrôlée (or AOC), Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (or VDQS); Vin de pays, or country wine; and Vin de table. France has five major wine regions, although there are several others that make interesting wines. The three major regions for red wine are Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone; for white wines, the regions are Burgundy, the Loire and Alsace. Each region specialized in certain grape varieties for its wines, based on climate, soil, and local tradition. Two other significant French wine regions are Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, both in the south of France. Cahors, in the southwest of the country, produces increasingly good wines.
Sauterne	This famous French appellation produces some of the most outstanding sweet wines in the world. Situated within the Graves district of Bordeaux, the area includes the five communes of Barsac, Bommes, Fargues, Preignac, and Sauternes. The dominant grape in Sauternes is Sémillon, although the final blend generally includes some Sauvignon Blanc and, occasionally, small amounts of Muscadelle. In good vintages, this appellation is the lucky recipient of the right climatic conditions to infect the grapes with botrytis cinerea (noble rot). This beneficial mold causes the grapes to shrivel, leaving sugar-laden fruit full of rich, concentrated flavors. The best Sauternes wines come from low-yielding vines that have been hand-picked to ensure that the grapes are not culled before reaching the perfect degree of required ripeness. The resulting classic Sauternes wine is rich and sweet—the botrytis cinerea contributes a desirable honeyed and complex nature to both the aroma and flavor.