Château Suduiraut, Sauternes Premier Cru, 2009

Château Suduiraut, Sauternes Premier Cru, 2009

  • icon-type Type

    White

  • icon-year Year

    2009

  • icon-style Style

    Sweet

  • icon-country Country

    France

  • icon-alcohollevel Alcohol level

    14%

  • icon-grapevariety Grape variety
    Semillon 93%, Sauvignon Blanc 7%
  • Rating

    JS 96, RP 98

The 2009 vintage started with a rainier winter than in the previous year. The spring also saw several rainy spells, forcing the estate to keep a watchful eye to make sure the grapes were protected against disease. Flowering enjoyed sunny conditions, however, and the summer that followed, with periods of great heat interspersed with some storms (welcome because they brought no hailstones in the area), helped to catch up the ten-day delay in the vine cycle. The particularly hot, sunny month of August speeded up the ripening process, producing ripe healthy grapes with a lovely golden tint before the arrival of Botrytis.

The first grapes began to shrivel as early as September, in hot, sunny conditions, and these were picked in the first 'trie'. Harvesting started on 17 September and came a few days of rain (19 and 20 September) allowing Botrytis to settle in, which it did slowly and very regularly. With the arrival of an east wind in early October, concentration started and the harvest of very concentrated grapes was brought in very quickly and in large quantities, which is rather unusual. Harvesting ended on 20 October, with a total of three 'tries'.

Château Suduiraut 2009 has a very appealing, bright golden yellow colour. Its complexity is echoed on the nose: candied tropical fruit, white flowers, gingerbread, and gunflint give together a rich yet lively overall result. The palate is very powerful, with aromas of roast pineapple, candied apricot and barley sugar. Its smoothness is always underpinned by wonderful freshness, giving it great elegance. The long, full-bodied finish reveals spices, candied fruit and vanilla. This legendary Suduiraut is still coming into its own and requires a little more patience. If you wish to enjoy it now, it would benefit from being decanted for two hours.

About Château Suduiraut

Château Suduiraut, formerly Cru du Roy and Château de Suduiraut, is a sweet white wine ranked as Premier Cru Classé (French, “First Growth”) in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Belonging to the Sauternes appellation in Gironde, in the region of Graves, the winery is located in Preignac, adjacent to Château d'Yquem.

The estate took the name of Suduiraut in 1580 on the marriage of Nicole d'Allard to Léonard de Suduiraut. The château was plundered and burned down during the Fronde insurrection, then rebuilt in the XVII century. It was re-named Cru du Roy in the late 18th century on being taken over by a nephew of the Suduiraut family, Jean Joseph Duroy, Baron of Noaillan. The family home then acquired a cartouche featuring the Suduiraut and Duroy coats of arms, which was to give rise to the escutcheon used by Château Suduiraut today. The property was planted with magnificent formal gardens, designed by Le Nôtre, King Louis XIV's renowned gardener.

On 18 April 1855 the estate was classed as a Premier Cru during the official wine classification programme in the Gironde wine growing area.

AXA Millésimes acquired Château Suduiraut in 1992 with the aim of preserving and perpetuating the estate's remarkable tradition of vineyard management and winemaking. Inspired by the great Suduiraut wines of the past, the new management has enabled this great vineyard to fulfil its full potential in recent years.

Although wine growing in the region can be traced back to Roman times, there is unquestionably a Dutch influence in the emergence of these wines. In the XVII century Dutch merchants were well-established in the Barsac vineyard, where they produced sweet white wines without using noble rot. It was only in the early 18th century that the practice of harvesting over-ripe grapes through a process of successive selections was introduced.

Grape variety
Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words sauvage ("wild") and Blanc ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France. It is possibly a descendant of Savagnin. Sauvignon Blanc is planted in many of the world's wine regions, producing a crisp, dry, and refreshing white varietal wine. The grape is also a component of the famous dessert wines from Sauternes and Barsac. Sauvignon Blanc is widely cultivated in France, Chile, Romania, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bulgaria, the states of Washington and California in the US. Some New World Sauvignon Blancs, particularly from California, may also be called "Fumé Blanc", a marketing term coined by Robert Mondavi in reference to Pouilly-Fumé.

Depending on the climate, the flavour can range from aggressively grassy to sweetly tropical. In cooler climates, the grape has a tendency to produce wines with noticeable acidity and "green flavours" of grass, green bell peppers and nettles with some tropical fruit (such as passion fruit) and floral (such as elderflower) notes. In warmer climates, it can develop more tropical fruit notes but risks losing much aroma from over-ripeness, leaving only slight grapefruit and tree fruit (such as peach) notes.

Wine experts have used the phrase "crisp, elegant, and fresh" as a favourable description of Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley and New Zealand. Sauvignon Blanc, when slightly chilled, pairs well with fish or cheese, particularly chèvre. It is also known as one of the few wines that can pair well with sushi.

Along with Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc was one of the first fine wines to be bottled with a screw-cap in commercial quantities, especially by New Zealand producers. The wine is usually consumed young, as it does not particularly benefit from aging, as varietal Sauvignon Blancs tend to develop vegetal aromas reminiscent of peas and asparagus with extended aging. Dry and sweet white Bordeaux, including oak-aged examples from Pessac-Léognan and Graves, as well as some Loire wines from Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre are some of the few examples of Sauvignon Blancs with aging potential

Winemakers in New Zealand and Chile harvest the grapes at various intervals for the different blending characteristics that the grape can impart depending on its ripeness levels. At its most unripe stage, the grape is high in malic acid. As it progresses further towards ripeness the grape develops red & green pepper flavours and eventually achieves a balance of sugars. The flavours characteristic of Sauvignon Blanc come from the chemicals methoxypyrazines. Grapes grown in Marlborough's Wairau Valley may exhibit different levels of ripeness over the vineyard, caused by slight unevenness in the land and giving a similar flavour profile to the resulting wine.

Sauvignon Blanc can be greatly influenced by decisions in the winemaking process. One decision is the amount of contact that the must has with the skins of the grape. In the early years of the New Zealand wine industry, there were no wineries in the South Island, which meant that freshly harvested grapes had to be trucked and then ferried to the North Island, often all the way up to Auckland. This allowed for prolonged exposure of the skins and juice which sharpened the intensity and pungency of the wine. Some winemakers, like the Loire, intentionally leave a small amount of must to spend some time in contact with the skin for later blending purposes. Other winemakers, like in California, generally avoid any contact with the skin due to the reduced aging ability of the resulting wine.

Another important decision is the temperature of fermentation. French winemakers prefer warmer fermentations (around 16-18 °C) that bring out the mineral flavours in the wine while New World winemakers prefer slightly colder temperatures to bring out more fruit and tropical flavours. A small minority of Loire winemakers will put the wine through malolactic fermentation, a practice more often associated with New Zealand wines. Oak aging can have a pronounced effect on the wine, with the oak rounding out the flavours and softening the naturally high acidity of the grape. Some winemakers, like those in New Zealand and Sancerre, prefer stainless steel fermentation tanks over barrels with the intention of maintaining the sharp focus and flavour intensity.

Alternative Names: Fumé Blanc, Sauvignon Bianco, Muskat-Silvaner, Muskat-Sylvaner

Sémillon

Sémillon is a golden-skinned grape used to make dry and sweet white wines, mostly in France and Australia. Its thin skin and susceptibility to botrytis make it dominate the sweet wine region Sauternes AOC and Barsac AOC.

Sémillon, which is relatively easy to cultivate, consistently produces six to eight tons of grapes per acre from its vigorous vines. It is fairly resistant to disease, except for rot. The grape ripens early, when, in warmer climates, it acquires a pinkish hue. Since the grape has a thin skin, there is also a risk of sunburn in hotter climates; it is best suited to areas with sunny days and cool nights.

The Sémillon grape is rather heavy, with low acidity and an almost oily texture. It has a high yield and wines based on it can age a long time. Along with Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, Sémillon is one of only three approved white wine varieties in the Bordeaux region.

The grape is also key to the production of sweet wines such as Sauternes. For the grapes to be used for sweet wine production, they need to have been affected by Botrytis (also known as "noble rot"). This fungus dries out the grapes, thus concentrating the sugar and flavours in the grape berry.

Alternative Names: Malaga, Chevrier, Columbier, Blanc Doux, Wyndruif

About Sauternes

Sauternes, 40 miles (65km) south of Bordeaux city, is a village famous for its high-quality sweet wines. Although some wineries here produce dry wines, they sell them under appellations other than the sweet-specific Sauternes appellation. The village is surrounded on all sides by vineyards, the best of which produce some of the world's most prestigious, long-lived and expensive dessert wines. A half-bottle of top-quality, aged Sauternes wine from a good vintage can command prices in excess of $1000.

The classic Sauternes wine has an intense golden colour (darker than most other dessert wines), which turns a deep amber as it ages in bottle. The aromas include blossom and stone fruit, with a hint of honeysuckle – the trademark of botrytized wines. The best wines balance sweetness with acidity, concentration with freshness, and power with elegance.

Sauternes' wines are made mostly from the Semillon grape variety, which accounts for about eight in every 10 vines in the local vineyards. Sauvignon Blanc accounts for much of the remaining vineyard area and is the dominant variety in just a small handful of Sauternes wines. Semillon forms a broad, well-structured base with aromas of beeswax and apricot, while Sauvignon Blanc brings its trademark herbal aromatics and sufficient acidity to keep the resulting wine fresh rather than palate-cloying. This pair (which are sometimes complemented by a tiny amount of Muscadelle and Sauvignon Gris) have become the preferred varieties here not only because they are also used to make Bordeaux's dry whites, but because of their susceptibility to a particular kind of fungus, Botrytis cinerea (often just botrytis).

Other than yeasts, without which grape juice could not ferment into wine, one might not expect a fungus to play a key role in winemaking. And yet the distinctive Sauternes wine style is entirely dependent on this particular fungus strain. Under adverse conditions, Botrytis cinerea causes grapes to rot and disintegrate, further exposing their flesh and juice to all manner of other fungi and bacteria. In this form, it is known as "grey rot", and leads to sour, unpleasant aromas in wine. But when botrytis spores land on healthy grapes under favourable weather conditions, they have quite a different effect, and develop into benevolent "noble rot".

Noble rot develops most reliably in areas where morning mists, which allow the fungus to thrive, are followed by warm, dry afternoons that dry the grapes out and prevent the development of grey rot. When repeated over a number of weeks, this process gradually dries the grapes, reducing their water content and naturally concentrating their sugars and flavour compounds. The result is intensely sweet, flavour-rich juice. In autumn, Sauternes and its neighbours Barsac, Bommes, Fargues and Preignac have exactly these climatic conditions, thanks to the warming and cooling of air around the nearby River Ciron.

The Sauternes appellation laws state that grapes may be picked only when their must weight reaches 221 grams per litre (the minimum for regular, dry Bordeaux Blanc wines is just 162g/L). Because not all these abundant sugars are fermented into alcohol, the finished wine contains naturally high levels of residual sugar. In good vintages, nature needs no help getting grapes to such high levels of sweetness, but in poor vintages, winemakers turn to cryoextraction and even chaptalisation to achieve this. Cryoextraction involves freezing the grapes before they are pressed, which reduces the amount of water in the resulting juice. Chaptalisation – the addition of sugar or artificially concentrated grape juice – is permitted only in poor vintages and, even then, only to a limited extent.

Regular price $75.00

Unit price per 

Bottle Size

Case Size

Close (esc)

Follow us

Thank you for

Age verification

By clicking enter you are verifying that you are legally old enough to consume alcohol.

Search

Shopping Cart

Your cart is currently empty.
Shop now