2020 - d'Yquem, Sauternes

The 2020 Château d'Yquem a blend of 75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc. It has 135 grams per liter of residual sugar and a pH of 3.79. Pale lemon-gold colored, citrus and baking spice notes emerge slowly from the glass, rising to offer well-defined scents of candied ginger, orange blossoms, allspice, and almond tart, leading to a flamboyant core of peach cobbler, ripe, juicy pineapple, jasmine tea, and apple butter with a waft of saffron. The palate is full-bodied and characteristically rich, yet possesses impressive tension and therefore stunning harmony. Layers of exotic spices and fragrant white flower accents fill the palate, leading to a long finish with lingering chalk and mineral nuances. It’s a showy Yquem that is gregarious in youth but is reserving that extra something for those with the patience to wait twenty years or more.

The 2020 Yquem has a slightly more Germanic nose than its peers, with a touch of petrol behind the veneer of dried honey, apricot and saffron. The palate is well balanced, with just a little oak to be subsumed. It’s very poised. Well-judged acidity drives through the harmonious finish. Give this three or four years in bottle for that wood to be assimilated, and you will have a sophisticated Sauternes on your hands (and a score in line with the one tasted at the estate in 2023). Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.