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Château d'Yquem Premier Cru Supérieur Sauternes 2005

Reviews

100 -Owen Bargreen -

The 2005 Chateau d’Yquem is a scintillating wine that is just starting to hit its prime drinking window. The nose has a great exotic appeal with ripe pineapple and ginger tones that mingle with shades of butterscotch, and brandy soaked white raisin that all marvelously march in harmony in the glass. The scintillating aromatics bring you back to the glass for more delight. Stunning on the mid-palate, the silky texture truly entices. The range is insanely good from cardamom infused honey to candied ginger and lemon creme brûlée flavors. This is a complete wine that not only has tremendous viscosity but a marvelous balance and sense of place. Finishing strong with minerals, candied tropical fruits and butterscotch, the wine lingers incredibly long on the tongue. Ethereal and quite youthful now, do not hesitate to open this beautiful wine.

98+ -Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -

The 2005 d'Yquem continues to drink beautifully today, evoking aromas of honey, saffron, vanilla pod, apricot, jasmine and orange peel. Full-bodied, sensual and juicy, it’s medium to full-bodied, with a seamless texture and a perfectly balanced palate, finishing fruity and racy. Although still a little closed and in a rather discreet phase, it has magnificent aging potential, and readers with bottles in their cellars should leave them to mature for 10 to 20 years.

98 -The Wine Independent -

A blend of 80% Semillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc, with 141 grams per liter of residual sugar, the 2005 Yquem is pale to medium gold in color. It starts off reticent and slightly broody before spilling out of the glass with notes of applesauce, peach cobbler, and musk melon, giving way to powerful scents of candied ginger, jasmine tea, chamomile, and saffron, together with a touch of chalk. The palate is an atomic bomb of flavors, coating the palate with spicy apple and peach preserves, with beautiful tension, finishing very long with loads of mineral sparks. It's gone into a closed stage for now – you should cellar it a good 7-10 years longer.

97 -Wine Spectator -

97 -Wine Enthusiast -

97 -Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider -

This treat offers everything you could want in a sweet wine with countless layers of honey-slathered, vanilla-tinted ripe, and overripe tropical fruits, roasted nuts, and apricots. Rich, luscious, and also bright, crisp, vibrant, and racy, this is so good now, that it is impossible to put down your glass. But is only going to get better from here with additional years of bottle age. That is part of the magic and allure of Chateau d'Yquem! Drink from 2022-2070.

96 -Falstaff -

Medium golden yellow with silver highlights; fresh orange zest, mandarin segments, pleasant floral honey, and white blossoms—a multifaceted bouquet. Elegant on the palate, with balanced sweetness, integrated acidity, a fine touch of caramel, white peach, and delicate woody spice on the finish; it comes across as mineral-driven and still very youthful, with enormous potential for further development.

96 -Jane Anson -

Dried figs, saffron, white peaches, grilled pineapple, cumin, butterscotch, beeswax, blood orange, pink grapefruit, elegant with taut acidities that play with the lusicous, rich opulence of the core of this beautiful wine. 141g/l residual sugar, harvest began on September 19th right through to October 28, after the driest year since 1877. Last tasted in 2022.

96 -Vinous -

The 2005 Yquem is limpid golden in hue. The bouquet is gorgeous, finely-tuned and precise with clear honey, vanilla pod and saffron, less of the almond that I have noticed previously. The palate is built around its exquisite poise, the acidity keeping this Yquem on its tip-toes. As I have noted before, it appears to be gaining in concentration and viscosity with age, lovely fig and tangerine notes combining with a slight nuttiness on the finish. (NM)

95 -James Suckling -

What an incredible nose of flowers, honey, spices such as clove, and sandalwood. With time, decadent aromas of apple tart and crumble develop. Full and very round on the palate, this is medium sweet with a velvety texture. Flavors of honey, apple and pear tart appear on the long finish. This is so beautiful, hard not to drink now but will greatly improve with more time. 140 grams of RS.

94 -Decanter -

The summer heat that led to such outstanding wines from Bordeaux in 2005 was not ideal for Sauternes, as the onset of botrytis was fairly late and sporadic. Also the hot conditions kept acidity on the low side. Nonetheless d'Yquem made a finely balanced wine, with discreet apple and apricot aromas that are still reticent. It's suave, textured and very concentrated, with elegant oak and no overbearing viscosity or heaviness. Very long, it will keep well, but may not be among the very greatest Yquems.

Technical Details

Blend 80% Sémillon, 20% Sauvignon Blanc
Winemaker Pierre Lurton
Country France
Region Bordeaux
Sub Region Graves
Appellation Sauternes
Vineyard Estate Vineyards of Château d'Yquem, Premier Cru Supérieur
Farming Method Sustainable Practices
Oak 100% new French oak barrels
Fermentation Fermentation in 100% new oak
Aging / Cooperage 30 months
Alcohol 13.5%
Production 12,000 cases

Château d'Yquem Premier Cru Supérieur Sauternes 2005

Name: Château d'Yquem Premier Cru Supérieur Sauternes 2005
Brand: First Bottle
SKU: 1014726
Price: 345.0 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

White Bordeaux Blends | Bordeaux

OB100, WA98+, TWI98, WS97, WE97, JL97, FS96, JA96, VN96, JS95, DC94

SPECIAL: Ground shipping included on 2+ bottles!

Sustainable Practices

$700.00

$345.00

750ML

50% OFF RETAIL!

This is truly a collector’s wine – highly sought-after and regularly commanding auction prices that rival some of the most expensive wines in the world. The 2005 was the second vintage made by cellar master Sandrine Garbay, and it’s a beauty: 80% Sémillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc, with 141 grams per liter of residual sugar delivering that characteristic voluptuousness and bright opulence. It was a famously dry growing season, with harvest running from September 19th through October 28th.

Château d’Yquem dates back to the middle ages, and Richard I of England once owned the estate in the late 12th century. He praised the quality of its wines, which were already famous, before the estate changed hands several times until the Lur-Saluces family purchased it in the 18th century. They ran the Château for more than 200 years, further enhancing its reputation for some of the finest sweet wines in the world. Since 1999, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has been at the helm. The soils are famous for their unique blue clay (also known as “mystique clay”), which helps regulate moisture in the vineyard to pristinely develop botrytis’ noble rot – the fungus behind the famous flavor profile of d’Yquem’s luxury sweet wines.

All at once, it is lavish, yet terrifically balanced and humming with a beautiful net of acidity, and just packed with intense flavors of dried apricot, white peach, grilled pineapple, blood orange, beeswax, saffron, toasted almond, acacia honey, and crème caramel. A long, lustrous finish brings it home with a poised purity, and it’s gorgeous to open now or tuck away for years more. Truly, every wine connoisseur should experience this at least once in their lives.

With limitless ageability, unceasing pedigree, and loads of critical applause (including 100 POINTS from Owen Bargreen, and nearly a dozen more scores ranging 95-98+ points) – there’s simply no reason to pass! We only have a small allocation to share, so don’t let this leave you behind!

About The Producer

The history of Château d’Yquem is like a novel, an epic saga full of events and colourful personalities spanning more than four centuries. Château d’Yquem is not only the most famous chateau in Sauternes today, the estate has possessed an exalted reputation dating back to the middle ages when d’Yquem was owned by the King of England. Today the estate is owned by the infamous luxury brand Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton who have made significant re-investment into the property. Yquem is in a class of their own, quite literally, in the classification of 1855, it was given a unique classification of Premier Cru Superieur", because it so clearly stood above all other Château.

$700.00

$345.00

750ML

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