by CHRIS MERCER – DECANTER Tuesday 18 December 2012
Chateau d’Yquem has pulled out of making a Sauternes in 2012 after the vintage failed a post-harvest taste test, the LVMH-owned Sauternes first growth confirmed. It is the first time in 20 years that d’Yquem has made such a call (below).
‘A brand like Château d’Yquem has to be prepared to not make a vintage,‘ Yquem CEO Pierre Lurton was quoted as telling the AFP newswire. Earlier this year, Lurton announced that d’Yquem would hold back from releasing its 2011 vintage en primeur.
A late start to this year’s harvest meant that all Sauternes producers were already under pressure, but poor weather in October proved too much for many grapevines to handle. ‘This is a very difficult decision, but the tasting of the harvest confirmed that the level of quality is not satisfactory to become Yquem,’ said chateau spokeswoman Valérie Lailheugue.
Other Sauternes chateaux are also having a difficult time such as Château de Fargues owned by Alexandre de Lur-Saluces. The chateau is facing its lowest yields for 12 years and had to leave almost 3/4 of its entire grape haul to rot on the ground, according to estate manager François Amirault: ‘We felt crushed by the incredible sense of waste,‘ he said in a blog posting on the chateau’s website. ‘It already looks as though at least a third of the harvest will not be sold under the Lur Saluces name,’ he said, although he added that it will be easier to evaluate quality at the end of fermentation.
Chateau Rieussec will make no 2012 vintage — 12/20/2012.
Domaines Barons de Rothchild (Lafite) director Charles Chevallier told Decanter.com they ‘simply felt there was not sufficient juice of first wine quality to justify the production this year.’ He confirmed however they would be making a second wine, Les Carmes de Rieussec. ‘This is the first vintage that we have made no [first] wine since 1993, but it has been a challenging year and the quality of our bottling must always be the priority.’
In the neighbouring sweet wine village of Barsac the harvest was earlier, there is more optimism. ‘2012 is never going to be a great vintage, but there should be some very crisp, fresh and elegant wines that will be very very good in five or six years,’ Max Lalondrelle at Berry Bros told Decanter.com this week.
Bérénice Lurton, owner of Château Climens in Barsac, said they had managed to produce some high quality wine. ‘We were able to harvest off and on until 31 October, and are now getting a fuller picture of the vintage after tasting the lots numerous times. We have a complex and elegant 2012 vintage, and feel certain that our biodynamic winemaking helped the vines to stay strong.’
Denis Dubourdieu, professor of œnology at Bordeaux University and owner of Château Doisy Daene, also in Barsac, added, ‘Of course things were complicated for sweet wine producers this year as they had to wait through a very dry September for enough rain for noble rot to begin to form, and then had a small window of opportunity before too much rain fell. At Doisy Daene we were able to make a small but good quality harvest, but remember that Barsac is not Sauternes, and different soils react differently.’