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‘Exceptional’ Château d’Yquem 2019 released
In its first March release, Château d’Yquem has released the “exceptional” 2019 vintage at €255 per bottle ex-négociant.
This translated to a release price of £3,000 in bond (IB) for a case of 12 bottles.
As reported by the drinks business last month, the release of the 2019 vintage marks a change of direction for the world’s most famous sweet wine, with a focus on persuading people to drink it younger and by the glass.
Marketing and sales director for LVMH Vins d’Exception, Mathieu Jullien, told db that although there were reasons not to open a bottle of Yquem because it can age for 100 years, “we should not miss this stage – the freshest and most vibrant it can be.”
The new timing of the release is also part of a wider “reconsideration” of how Yquem is sold and promoted, our Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay was told – that aims to “demystify” Yquem and turn it from “an inaccessible and distant dream” into an experience to be shared.
Here are are his tasting notes, tasted in early February at Chateau d’Yquem with Pierre Lurton and Lorenzo Pasquini.
Yquem 2019 (55% Sémillon; 45% Sauvignon Blanc; alcohol 14.5%; pH 3.90; residual sugar 138 g/L). This is uniquely brilliant and brilliantly unique – a singular but utterly sublime Yquem. There are two kind of vintage when it comes to Yquem: those in which it is the very best of a closely bunched group of wondrous Sauternes and Barsac and others in which it is in a league and of a class entirely of its own. 2019, like 2015, belongs to the second category of vintages – premier cru supérieur indeed! An incredibly vibrant and energetic wine. It is also fantastically complex. One starts almost to engage in a game of auto-suggestion – any citrus or umami note you can or could ever imagine is discernible here, you just have to conjure the idea in your head and there it is! Indeed, once one tunes into its wavelength it is almost impossible not to be struck by how clearly present and how well expressed each such element is. I wonder how many other vintages of Yquem one can play this game with. The problem, of course, is that this renders rather redundant the convention of listing even the most obvious elements. But the most striking, to me, it seems are saffron, mimosa and clementine, confit lime and white grapefruit, toasted brioche with melted beurre à la fleur de sel, frangipane, verbena, crushed mint leaf, apricot skin and confit ginger. More important is the overall impression: of total harmony, brightness, lift, levity, translucence and clarity. This is sinuous rather than linear; scintillating and pixilated rather than precisely focused per se and staggeringly complex and dynamic. It is also incredibly accessible, with all of its brilliant complexity of youth so evident. The acidity and the sense of crystalline clarity that it brings is captivating too. Very intellectual, even for Yquem and unlike any other Yquem I have ever tasted, at least in part because of the higher proportion of Sauvignon Blanc in the final blend. Pierre Lurton reminds me of Frédéric Dard’s famous comment: “Yquem est la lumière bu”. Indeed. 99.
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New March date sees ‘exceptional’ 2019 Yquem released
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