Le Château d'Yquem est le plus célèbre des vins du Sauternais. Ce vin liquoreux d'une finesse et d'une complexité rarement égalée ravira les sens des chanceux qui auront l'occasion de le déguster.
Données techniques
Vinification: Vendanges manuelles des baies atteintes de Botrytis-Cinerea (pourriture noble) de richesse minimale 20° alcool potentiel. La vendange est effectuée grain par grain par tries successives (en moyenne, 6 tries étalées sur 6 semaines). Fermentation et vieillissement en barriques neuves de chêne. Pas de chaptalisation. Elevage durant 3,5 ans avant la mise en bouteille."
Cépages: 80% Sémillon 20% Sauvignon Blanc
Age moyen : 30 ans (chaque année, 3 ha sont replantés)
Terroir: Graves, sables, argiles, calcaire perméable
Yquem is fermented in oak barrels (100% new) and is ageing to mature for up to 36 months. Intensely opulent when young, Yquem develops an extraordinary complexity and exotic richness when fully mature, with the best vintages lasting for over 50 years.
Château d'Yquem is classified as a 1er Cru Classé supérieur. Chateau d'Yquem can only be understood within the framework of time. Life seems to pass very slowly at Yquem, reflecting the chateau's history and traditions handed down from
generation to generation over more that four centuries.
Times helps keep track of the meticulous work in the vineyard and gives rhythm to long, late harvests. It seems endless during the wine's fermentation and barrel ageing stages,and takes on an air of mystery in the half-light of the cellars as the wine is slowly transformed.
At every moment in its life, d'Yquem is above all an affair of time and therefor patience. Chateau d'Yquem has a very long life span: twenty, fifty, a hundred years or more.