Sauternes

Vines are attested in the Sauternais from the Middle Ages; maritime trade intensified, and the prévôté of Barsac, which took in the communes of today's appellation, built its reputation; records from the period include the "usances et privilèges" of 1613 and a 1647 wine taxation by the jurats of Bordeaux and Dutch merchants. In 1741 the Intendant de Guyenne wrote that grapes there were picked only "quand les raisins sont presque pourris" (when the grapes are almost rotten), in several passes to give them more sweetness, and these practices spread to all properties in the 19th century. Two legends surround the birth of the sweet wines: in 1836 the négociant Frederic Focke waited for the sun to return after autumn rains before harvesting, and in 1847 the Marquis Bertrand de Lur-Saluces ordered the picking to wait for his return from a hunting trip in Russia. The 1855 classification, drawn up by Bordeaux brokers for the Exposition Universelle at the initiative of Napoleon III, counted 27 crus classés, the only white wines of the Gironde in the ranking. In 1936 Sauternes became one of the very first French PDOs to be officially recognised.

• The decree of 30 September 1936 fixed local practice in its article 6: vinification from grapes that reached overripeness (noble rot), picked in successive passes
• The district began producing sweet white wines in the 17th century to meet the demand of Flemish merchants in nearby Bordeaux
• A century after Aquitaine came under French rule in 1453, a local nobleman, Jacques Sauvage, was granted feudal tenure over Yquem, and the Sauvage and Lur Saluces families kept the estate for over 400 years
• LVMH acquired Château d'Yquem in 1999, and Pierre Lurton is its President and CEO

The Sauternes area lies about forty kilometres south-east of Bordeaux, on the left bank of the Garonne, surrounding the commune of Langon to the north-west and west. To the west, the Ciron valley separates it from the Graves region and, soon after, from the Landes forest; the Ciron, a Garonne tributary, marks the boundary of Sauternes, Bommes and Preignac and separates them from Barsac. The Ciron rises in the Landes and winds for more than 100 kilometres under a thick tree canopy that cools its waters; where they meet the much warmer Garonne, condensation forms fogs that clear on sunny afternoons, while natural ventilation dries the grapes. The soils are varied (gravelly, clayey, siliceous and limestone) over a subsoil that is most often clay but also gravel or limestone and sometimes alios, sand and gravel cemented by iron, aluminium and manganese hydroxides, with alluvial and sandy-gravel layers combined with silt and clayey sand. Gravel-sand mounds rest on a Tertiary limestone base that lies close to the surface above all in Barsac.

• The climate is oceanic, with mild, humid winters and moderately warm summers that allow slow ripening suited to white grapes
• The gentle hills lie along the axis of the Garonne valley facing east-south-east, which favours good natural ventilation of the vineyard
• Barsac is the only commune of the appellation north of the Ciron, with a fissured limestone plateau called Haut-Barsac covered by a 40 to 60 cm layer of red earth
• Barsac owners use either the Barsac or the Sauternes name; of Barsac's 660 hectares, two-thirds carry the Barsac name and one-third Sauternes

Sémillon is the main variety and the most important grown in Sauternes; the late-19th-century viticulture expert Georges Cazeaux-Cazalet held that it originated in the Sauternais. The variety is particularly susceptible to botrytis, and its thick-skinned berries lend themselves particularly well to botrytisation. Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle often join the blend for their aromas, with Muscadelle a minority variety that adds floral and fruity notes. Noble rot makes tiny holes in the grape skin, letting water evaporate and concentrating the acids, sugars and flavours. The appellation requires at least 45 grams per litre of fermentable sugars (glucose and fructose) in any lot, while Château d'Yquem's 2023 vintage has 153 g/L of residual sugar with 14% alcohol. A typical Sauternes is sweet, medium to high in alcohol and full-bodied with high acidity, with pronounced stone fruit (apricot) and oak characters (smoke, vanilla), and able to mature for many years in bottle, developing dried fruit, honey and caramel.

• Château d'Yquem's 2023 vintage is a blend of 70% Sémillon and 30% Sauvignon Blanc, with 14% alcohol, 153 g/L residual sugar and a harvest from 14 September to 11 October
• Sémillon's dominance owes partly to its good resistance to downy and powdery mildew when those diseases threatened to destroy the vineyard at the end of the 19th century
• Young Sauternes is golden, with aromas of flowers and fruit; with age the colour turns amber and a "rôti" bouquet develops, with toasted notes, candied fruit, citrus and honey
• The Bordeaux wine council (CIVB) credits Botrytis cinerea with giving the wines over 50 different aromas and flavours, and Sauternes are wines for very long keeping, of several decades

The 1855 sweet wine classification recognises Château d'Yquem as the unique Premier Cru Supérieur, a designation that has no equivalent among the red wine First Growths. Below Yquem sit 11 Premiers Crus and 15 Deuxièmes Crus, totalling 27 classified estates today. The white wines have three levels (Premier Cru Supérieur, Premier Cru and Second Cru) against five for the reds, with 27 châteaux in Sauternes and Barsac. Ten of the 27 crus classés are in Barsac: two premiers crus and eight seconds crus. Yquem was given the title Premier Cru Supérieur in 1855, and its vineyard covers a hundred hectares on a mosaic of soils at the top of the hills of Sauternes. Château Guiraud became one of the first 1855 classified growths in Bordeaux to be certified organic, and Château Climens in Barsac converted to biodynamic production in 2010.

• Château d'Yquem stands alone in the Premiers Crus Supérieurs tier of the Sauternes and Barsac classification
• The two Barsac Premiers Crus are Château Coutet and Château Climens; the other nine lie in Bommes, Preignac, Sauternes and Fargues
• Seconds Crus: Myrat, Doisy-Daëne, Doisy-Dubroca, Doisy-Védrines, Broustet, Nairac, Caillou and Suau in Barsac, and d'Arche, Filhot, de Malle, Romer, Romer-du-Hayot, Lamothe and Lamothe-Guignard in Sauternes
• JancisRobinson.com calls Château d'Yquem the most famous sweet white wine of all, able to live for well over a century

Maximum yields under AOC rules are 25 hectolitres per hectare, with a ceiling (rendement butoir) of 28 hl/ha. Grapes must reach at least 221 grams of sugar per litre of must, the wines must show a minimum natural alcohol of 15% and a minimum acquired alcohol of 12%, and vines are planted at a minimum of 6,500 per hectare with a maximum average load of 8,000 kilograms per hectare before overripening. Harvesting is by hand in successive passes (tries successives) of overripe grapes with noble rot present; pickers select the "rôtis" berries with scissors, vine by vine, on the first pass, followed by two or three more passes, or more, depending on the weather. The pressed grapes ferment very slowly until the alcohol level kills the yeasts, leaving wines still rich in sugar. Wines must be aged until at least 15 March of the year after the harvest and may be released to consumers only after 30 June of that year.

• Yield 25 hl/ha (ceiling 28 hl/ha); minimum natural alcohol 15%; minimum acquired alcohol 12%; at least 45 g/L fermentable sugars in any lot
• Any phytosanitary product with a specific anti-botrytis action is banned, as is total chemical weeding of the plots
• Enrichment with sugar or rectified concentrated must may not raise total alcohol above 15%; in JancisRobinson.com's view, proprietors discouraged by modest selling prices simply pick the grapes and add sugar
• Production conditions in Barsac are identical to Sauternes; fermentation is slow and often carried out in barrels, followed by long ageing before bottling

Sauternes and neighbouring Barsac lie within a 45-minute drive of Bordeaux, and 90% of the appellation's wineries are family-run. Decanter's 2022 guide recommends visits at Château de Rayne Vigneau, Château La Tour Blanche, Château d'Yquem and Château de Fargues, and in Barsac at Château Climens, Château Coutet and the visitor centre at Château Doisy-Daëne. Local resources include the Maison du vin and the Route des vins en Graves et Sauternes, and the area can be explored on foot, by bike, on horseback or by canoe on the Ciron. The main villages, Sauternes and Barsac, are only 10 km apart, with a limited number of lodging and dining options.

• The "Arômes & Paysages" walk takes place every June in Sauternes, followed by a five-course meal served with Sauternes wines
• The 2022 Sauternes wine festival was set for 18 June, with annual winery open-house events in November
• As of 2022, Château d'Yquem offers a tour and a tasting room, and several estates traditionally closed to the public are opening their cellars
• The Sauternes landscape is one of vine-covered mounds lined with dry-stone walls, dotted with châteaux from every era since the 15th century and old limestone villages

Primary sources (INAO, the Bordeaux wine interprofession CIVB via bordeaux.com, WSET, and Château d'Yquem's and its parent group LVMH's own sites for Yquem's own facts): https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/4-CDC-Sauternes-PNO.pdf, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/4-CDC-Barsac-PNO.pdf, https://www.bordeaux.com/en/designations/graves-sauternes/sauternes/, https://www.bordeaux.com/en/classifications/classifications-1855/, https://2023.yquem.fr/en/, https://www.lvmh.com/en/our-maisons/wines-spirits/chateau-dyquem, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/13022/wset_l2wines_sessionplans_en_may2023_issue2.pdf. The two INAO specification PDFs are the texts published for the national opposition procedure following the committee opinion of 2 June 2021, which INAO states do not prejudge the final wording. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/features/a-wines-lovers-guide-to-sauternes-481327/, https://www.jancisrobinson.com/learn/wine-regions/france/bordeaux/sauternes, https://www.winespectator.com/articles/the-1855-bordeaux-classification-3491. Last verified 2026-10-05