Château d'Yquem
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Château d'Yquem is a Premier Cru Supérieur (French, "Great First Growth" or "Great First Vintage") wine from the Sauternes region in the southern part of the Bordeaux vineyards known as Graves.
In the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Château d'Yquem was the only Sauternes given this rating, indicating its perceived superiority and higher prices over all other wines of its type. Wines from Château d'Yquem are characterised by their complexity, concentration and sweetness. A relatively high acidity helps to counteract the sweetness. Another characteristic for which Château d'Yquem wines are known are their longevity. In a good year, a bottle will only begin to show its qualities after a decade or two of cellaring and with proper care, will keep for a century or more, gradually adding layers of taste and hitherto undetected fruity overtones.
Since 1959, Château d'Yquem has produced a dry white wine called Ygrec (French for the letter "Y"), made from an equal proportion of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is not produced in every vintage.
Château d'Yquem is also purportedly the only house which ensures that the wines are made from individually picked grapes, ostensibly to ensure that quality is the finest possible. This means that each vine, on average, can only produce a single glass of wine.
The wine is said to be a favourite of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Thomas Jefferson, in his capacity as Envoy to France, visited the château and enjoyed the wines so much that he wrote a letter to the de Sauvage family (who then owned it), requesting 250 bottles of the 1784 vintage for himself, and additional bottles for George Washington. However, at that time the technique of allowing noble rot to enhance Sauternes had not yet been discovered, so the wine Jefferson was drinking was a different, though still fine, sweet wine.
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[edit] History
The site has been home to a vineyard since at least 1711 when the estate became fully owned by Léon de Sauvage d'Yquem. In 1785 it passed to the Lur Saluces family when Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage d'Yquem married Count Louis-Amédée de Lur Saluces, whose descendants ran the property for over 200 years. For most of the 20th century the Château was run by the Marquis Bernard de Lur Saluces who developed its status until his death in 1968.
Since 1996, Château d'Yquem has been owned by the French luxury goods giant LVMH, who bought the Château from the Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces after a bitter family feud, although he was kept as the manager of the estate. Rejecting purchase of the vineyard were AXA (the French insurance giant), Coca-Cola, Nestle, Philip Morris, RJR Nabisco, Seagram's and Diageo. Bitter legal battles continued following the sale and in May 17, 2004, the Count retired and was replaced by the current managing director of Château Cheval Blanc, Pierre Lurton. The Count was known for being particularly dedicated towards maintaining the level of quality which made Château d'Yquem famous, going so far as to reject an entire batch of the wine if he did not like the results of a randomised testing.
In 2006 Dior and Château d'Yquem teamed up together to create a unique skin care product made from the sap of the Yquem vines. [1]
[edit] Production
The vineyard extends to 113 hectares between the villages of Sauternes and Fargues, though only around 100 hectares are in production at any time. The vines consist of around 80% sémillon and 20% sauvignon blanc, though the latter's productivity means that the proportions are more equal in the final wine. Yquem's success stems from the site's susceptibility to attack by the Botrytis fungus, as well as its painstaking methods that result in quality at the cost of overall production quantity.
The harvesting is carefully timed, and at least a half dozen "tris" are undertaken each year to ensure that only the botrytized grapes are selected. The resulting yield is never more than 900 litres per hectare, compared to the usual 2,000 to 3,000 litres in Sauternes. The grapes are pressed three times and transferred to oak barrels for maturation over a period of three and a half years.
On average, only 65000 bottles are produced each year. In a poor vintage, the entire crop is deemed unworthy of bearing the Château's name; this happened 9 times in the 20th century (1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992).
[edit] References in literature
Château d'Yquem is a favorite of Hannibal Lecter. In the novel Hannibal, he tracked down and purchased a bottle of Château d'Yquem that was bottled in the year of Clarice Starling's birth as a 33rd birthday gift for her.
Château d'Yquem is referenced in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pnin, as Pnin prepares his heady 'Pnin's Punch' for his home-warming party. The mixture contains chilled Château d'Yquem, grapefruit juice, and maraschino.
Château d'Yquem is said to be the favourite wine of Old Etonian Denys Finch Hatton (1887-1931), the Kenya-based white hunter, aviator, bon vivant, and lover of novelist Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen).
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Echikson, William. Luxury on the Block. Chapter 7 in Echikson, William. Noble rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution. NY: W.W.Norton, 2004.
- Echikson, William. Battle Royal. Chapter 11 in Echikson, William. Noble rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution. NY: W.W.Norton, 2004.
