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Chateau Yquem to release ‘hothouse’ Y 2022 and unveils historic release from its cellars
Chateau Yquem will release the 2022 vintage of Y (Ygrec) on La place tomorrow (5 September) as well as unveiling its ‘Time Capsule’ project, which will see very limited number of some exceptional historic bottles released from the Château’s cellars. db’s Bordeaux correspondent, Colin Hay reports.
Produced from the very same parcels and vines as Château d’Yquem, Y (pronounced ‘ee-grek’) is Yquem’s dry white wine, made to express its Sauternes terroir in a rather different style and with just a touch of residual sugar (typically around 4% of that to be found in Yquem itself).
The wine in fact comes from a special selection of grapes, essentially a single bunch from each of the best vines grown for the grand vin itself, picked before the full onset of botrytis. It combines the citrus freshness of Sauvignon Blanc with the complexity, depth and concentration that comes from the Sémillon, sometimes (as in 2022) with just a hint of noble rot.
If Y is a singular and exceptional wine, one that really none of Yquem’s neighbours have come close to emulating successfully, then 2022 is also a singular and exceptional vintage. Indeed, there is no disguising it. 2022 is, quite simply, something of an extreme, referred to at Yquem with now characteristic candour as a ‘hothouse’ vintage.
It shattered many a record, being the warmest and the driest at Yquem since 1896. It was also the vintage with the shortest ever period between bud-break and harvest, an astonishingly fleeting 136 days. After a mild spring, the period from May to October saw temperatures a full 4 degrees above the average with no fewer than 25 daytime records set. Picking for Y began on the 9 August, the earliest on record.
Such raw statistics alone might give cause for a certain amount of trepidation, a trepidation that I recall quite vividly as I drew up at the Château to be greeted by Lorenzo Pasquino and Annabelle Grellier prior to our tasting. I should have known better. For the wine retains both the staggering freshness that is its very heart and soul and the aerial florality that it seems to have acquired more recently, combining them with an opulence, richness and voluptuousness rare even for Y.
Y 2022 is, for me, one of the greatest recent vintages of this unique wine – and that it is so is testimony to the sheer accomplishment, technical skill and precision of the team in the vineyard and in the chai and cellar. The proportion of Sémillon in the final blend is unusually high, at 40 per cent. And, just as importantly, that Sémillon was picked at the perfect moment to capture early-stage botrytis – castamé as it is called in the local vernacular (if Swedish has 25 words for snow, Sauternes has a good few for noble rot!).
Tasting note
Y d’Yquem 2022 (Bordeaux blanc; 60% Sauvignon Blanc; 40% Sémillon; pH 3.28; residual sugar of 6.5 g/l; aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, one third of them new, the rest previously used for Yquem; 14% alcohol). A wine of staggering elegance and freshness given the meteorological conditions out of which it was forged. The earliest vintage ever recorded here, with the picking dates chosen to retain all the structuring freshness of the Sauvignon Blanc. This is profoundly complex, even in its infancy. Blanched almonds; white pear; elderflower and elderberry; hawthorn; green leaf tea; mimosa; lime, confit lime and lemongrass; a little apricot and peach skin; white wine gums (remember them?) – with that gentle hint of sugar; toasted brioche with melted beurre salé. I love the subtle hint of the residual sugar here which just reinforces the depth and richness and gives the citrus notes more to play with in extracting tension. There’s a subtle and very gentle bitter note here, too (coming I think from the early botrytis, castamé) – caramelised mandarin peel, blood orange and Seville marmalade perhaps. This is an Y with significant aging potential, of course, but it is also already highly accessible, its complexity already almost fully formed. That said, I love the additional leafiness that comes through with aeration – gooseberry leaf, orange blossom and white currant above all – suggesting the value of the decanter. Great precision and a technical triumph over climatic adversity that should give us great confidence for the future. 95.
‘Time Capsule’ project
In addition to the new release, the estate is set to unveil its ‘Time Capsule’ project, which aims to highlight the ageing potential of Yquem’s wines through the release of a very limited number of exceptional bottles from the Château’s cellars.
With wines dating all the way back until 1892, the release will include a number of anniversary vintages such as 1984, 1954 and 1934, all in very limited quantities. Each of the bottles offered as part of the project has been expertly reconditioned over the last 5 years in the Château’s cellars.
The bottles and magnums will all bear a back label stating the year of reconditioning and the date they left the cellars. They will also be fitted with an ATT seal. Thanks to the QR code on this seal, purchasers will be able to authenticate their bottle.
The QR code will also give them access to a presentation of the vintage and the associated services they can benefit from – a visit or dinner and overnight stay. The wines can be made available in personalised wooden cases. Purchases of a bottle of the 1934 vintage from the Time Capsule series, for instance, will be offered the chance to visit Chateau Yquem, with up to five people of their choice for a private tour of the wine estate culminating in a tasting of three vintages from the 21st century.
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