Vintage 2004

Sauternes was starting to be afraid during the summer 2004 because of the tropical character of the beginning of august, with rain and heat creating sources of early rot on the grapes and not the noble rot. A clement month of September brings favourable weather for the Botrytis to develop, and during the first week of October, most of the Crus Classé bring in, at a price of a very meticulous work very different from a soil to another, an acceptable harvest approaching 20° natural. The second half of these long harvests will be less favourable because of the dilution of the grapes due to the numerous rains and to a very erratic evolution of the famous fungus on the rest of the harvest. If it is really true to what will be in bottle, all the wines tasted show that most of the properties have skilfully and conscientiously worked. All of them agreed that ten years earlier such a result would not have been possible with the same conditions. The character of the new vintage is completely different from the previous vintage, with a stronger fixed acidity and more complex aromas, less burned by the summer sun. One can have feared iodized or mushroomed deviations linked to a not completely noble rot in case of imprecise tries but it is rare. One hope that theses wines, so difficult to make, will encounter a commercial success equal to the amount of efforts made.

Quality of the vintage: 15/20
Potential of the vintage: 30 years of laying down and more

A vintage not so rich compared to 2001 or 2003, but very balanced, with good acidity. Last year, producers were unanimous to admit that the harvests were never so easy. It is not the same song this year. The summer sloped down gently towards rain and coolness and therefore provoked the start of the bad Botrytis, the grey rot, not really looked for by the producers. Thus, it took some time to collect the ripe grapes, and waiting for the other, the Noble rot, which concentrates the sugars of the ripe grapes. Some have thus decided to cleaned up the vineyard, real harvests before the harvests, to remove bunches of grapes or even, sometimes, inside the bunches, the touched grapes. Other chose to operate this selection during the first trie of harvest. All had a lot of work and the time spent to obtain a quality harvest is huge, which will give a nice wine, fruity, not very complex but which could be drunk quite young.

Le Point: Le millésime 2004, 9 JUIN 2005

Vintage 2003

2003 is a great botrytised vintage characterized by:

- a very good clarity

- intense nose, beautiful aromatic purity and panel of rare expressions which could intrigued some wine tasters, used to more averaged wines.

- structures rich but not heavy on the palate, with a royal sweetness of texture. A blending of botrytised and burned grapes gives to this vintage a lot of finesse in the mouth. The expressions mingle the advantages of fresh fruits and candied fruits, each one balancing the other. The absence of heaviness also comes from the presence of delicately bitter notes, which balance the sugar at the finish and make it evanescent.

My only critic is about a light lack of aromatic sparkle in the middle of the mouth. […]. This gustative impression can also finds its origin in the tasting itself. The sauternes 2003 have the most generous and grand entrées de bouche never observed in 15 years. Such presence in the first moments can more or less hide the middle of the mouth, according to its own intensity.

The experience shows that breeding is essential to those great wines. It gives more unity and a blend of sensations.

Nevertheless, I have given my best grades to the wines already possessing the most assets: they will not lose them!

I situate this vintage at the same level than 1989 and 1990. It borrows its sophistication to 1989 and its power to 1990. This is its great rareness!

Carnets de Dégustation de Jean-Marc Quarin, 2004

In three generations of wine makers, no one could remember such early grapes demanding such fast harvests. If some reckless persons had thinned out the leaves too much, in spite of the heatwave, they would have harvested an important proportion of burned grapes. Everybody else just run after the galloping development of the Botrytis, to avoid harvesting too rich grapes, to ferment correctly and have acceptable balances. More often than not, a single trie was necessary and desirable, and all the grapes were picked at the end of September, with sets way above 20° potential, that is to say the usual standard of Yquem! Acidify was needless and those who did it have produced wines which are a bit too angular compared to their sugar content. The general style would only be appreciated as young wines by lovers of very syrupy wines; the other will judge the vintage too rich and too heavy. But after twenty to twenty-five years, 2003 has everything to enter in the legend as the closest equivalent of the mythical 1921, with a better control over vinification, which means less acetic wines, more pure and fruity. The only question is: would they be able to reach that age? Indeed, we fear that naïve and conscientious producers, giving in to detractors of the SO² and do not protect enough their wines, thus leading to a premature ageing. It would be a shame!

Qualilty of the vintage: exceptional

Carnets de dégustation Bettane et Desseauve, Avril 2004

Vintage 2002

The month of September changed the cheap lead to gold. The harvests, started on 11th September for some, continued with the passing waves of Botrytis, until 15th November. That is to say that, during two months, one could have harvest in Sauternes as advisable, in numerous tries, sometimes from six to eight, waiting each time between the trie the most perfect noble rot. The Botrytis has developed intensely, giving the roast hints of the great years, and a beautiful concentration. The vintage will have the characteristic, doubtless due to the cool nights of September, of having retained a nice acidity which balanced the sugar content accumulated under the sun of this beautiful autumn.

Anyway, after an exceptional 2001, it is a new beautiful year in Sauternes, in different style, less rich, but fresh and delicate. Like last year, and maybe more so, the samples were homogeneous, the most modest properties sparkling as well. And two good years in a row, it is really rare in Sauternes!

Le Point, Mai 2003

Here, in the AOC of Sauternes and Barsac, the 2002 are surprisingly fresh... Those two entities of the Graves region include near 2000 ha and 240 Producers. For those wines coming from sauvignon, sémillon and muscadelle vines, the classical yields are generally low (15 to 17 hectolitres in Great Growths). One Premier Cru Supérieur, 11 Premiers Crus and 14 seconds Crus completed by some other properties, are mixed in the appellation. The wines present a lot of fruit and aromas which are already expressive in the nose as well as on the palate. The latter is rich, with fresh hints from beginning to end and a very aromatic finish.

Vins Magazine, summer 2003

Year 2006

This year is characterized by a very particular climate. After a cold winter, spring was very
warm followed by a scorching month of July. The qualitative potential was thus completely palpable.
In August the temperatures had cooled down and a significant difference could be noticed between the
day and night temperatures, favorable for the density and aromatic complexity.
At Clos Haut-Peyraguey we began our grape harvest on September 14, just before the rain started. We
were able to collect grapes of very good quality. Then after the rain, we had to do a thorough sorting
and cleaning because the rains had burst the center of the berries causing acetic punctures (this did not facilitate the task of the grape pickers and required permanent monitoring and guidance).
The concentration of grapes was very heterogeneous; we thus carried out 4 to 5 sessions of sorting according to the soils of our plots.
We worked (gathering, pressing, fermentation) on very small batches (a total of 22) which enabled us to carry out a very precise and qualitative assemblage, worthy of Château Clos Haut-Peyraguey.
At the end of the grape harvest, when our beautiful grapes had been gathered and pressed, we formed a team of grape pickers to make the grapes fall which could not be collected because they had not developed properly.
Of course the outputs are very weak since they barely reach 8 hl/ha, but thanks to our concern for quality, our wines taste very beautifully today; concentration is present as well as power and clearness, but also freshness and the elegance which characterize our wines.
The specialist press did not miss this. Here some of the comments:

The RVF graded 15.5-16.5 by qualifying the wine as “warm and exuberant in taste, with hints of ripe pineapple with a good complexity and elegance”

VINUM graded 17.5: “Elegant and fresh, a perfect balance between smoothness and acidity, a mineral finish which one does not find in the majority of Sauternes, an astonishing finish: excellent”.