Chateau de Fargues Sauternes (375ML half-bottle) 2001
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The 2001 vintage was a late ripening one for the estate by an Indian summer like 1988 and 1997. The first wave of picking was between September 29 - October 4 and the final passage through the vineyard occurred on October 24. Delivering 132 grams-per-liter residual sugar and 13.88% alcohol, it has a limpid golden hue. The bouquet is very perfumed with beautifully defined Seville orange marmalade, Manuka honey and minerals all vying for attention. The palate is medium-bodied with a viscous entry, noticeable acidity (a total acidity of 5.3 grams) that lends this race, and a citric line that runs from start to finish. There is a resinous/waxy note developing on the ginger-tinged finish that lingers long in the mouth.
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The constant desire to maintain a blanace between expertise passed down from generation to generation and carefully tested modern techniques makes this golden wine a "blue note" among the great Sauternes estates.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Sweet and unctuous but delightfully charming, the finest Sauternes typically express flavors of exotic dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, dried citrus peel, honey or ginger and a zesty beam of acidity.
Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle are the grapes of Sauternes. But Sémillon's susceptibility to the requisite noble rot makes it the main variety and contributor to what makes Sauternes so unique. As a result, most Sauternes estates are planted to about 80% Sémillon. Sauvignon is prized for its balancing acidity and Muscadelle adds aromatic complexity to the blend with Sémillon.
Botrytis cinerea or “noble rot” is a fungus that grows on grapes only in specific conditions and its onset is crucial to the development of the most stunning of sweet wines.
In the fall, evening mists develop along the Garonne River, and settle into the small Sauternes district, creeping into the vineyards and sitting low until late morning. The next day, the sun has a chance to burn the moisture away, drying the grapes and concentrating their sugars and phenolic qualities. What distinguishes a fine Sauternes from a normal one is the producer’s willingness to wait and tend to the delicate botrytis-infected grapes through the end of the season.