Cos D'Estournel and Chateau D'Yquem

Yesterday we did the first of our Bordeaux wine tours.

First off, let me say that wine tasting and touring is a completely different animal here than it is in Napa and Sonoma:

First off, many of the Chateaux and vineyard properties are gated, with locked gates, and you often can't even get in without an appointment. For both of our tours and tastings, we were the only ones there.

Second, they don't charge you for the tour or tasting, at least the two we went to so far didn't; that might not be true for all of them.

Third, they don't have a tasting room. The woman at Chateau D'Yquem didn't even know what that was, we had to describe it to her. So you can't just walk in off the street, pay money and taste a sampling of all of a certain winery's wines.

Fourth, a lot of the Chateaux don't even sell their wines on the property. You have to buy them somewhere else.

In an effort to keep the posts short(er), I won't describe in detail both wineries from yesterday, I will instead just talk about Chateau D'Yquem (photo above), since that visit was absolutely fascinating.

As I believe I have mentioned before, I am completely obsessed with the botrytis (noble rot) sweet wines, and Chateau D'Yquem, it seems, produces some of the best of these wines in the Sauternes area. I have not tasted loads and loads of Sauternes, partly because they can be pricey, so I can't say for certain if they deserve their reputation and pricetag, but all I can say is, I was impressed.

I knew that trying to make a botrytis wine was difficult, because since the fungus is naturally occurring, the wineries cannot know if they will have a proper infestation of it or not from one year to the next, but I never realized just how complicated and how exacting making these wines is.

Chateau D'Yquem uses Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes for their sweet wines; on the property, there are different sections of soil, so some of the grapes are growing in clay soil, some in limestone, some in gravel and, I believe, some in sand, though I will have to double-check.

The Sauvignon Blanc grapes and the Semillon will taste different, depending on which soil they have grown in, which adds depth and complexity to the wine.

When it comes time to pick the grapes, that's when things get complicated. First of all, there can be three different types of rot that will infect a cluster: grey rot, which turns the fruit to dust; sour rot which causes the fruit to burst and turn to vinegar; and finally the botrytis, or "noble rot", which shrivels the fruit but turns it to sugary deliciousness.

The pickers must be able to distinguish which rot is which, but it doesn't stop there. Botrytis infects a grape cluster at different rates, so the picking of these grapes can take up to 11 different passes.

The pickers will look at the bunch, determine which sections of the cluster have just the right amount of rot, cut those away, and leave the rest. They will return multiple times to pick additional clusters as the rot develops on them. Interestingly, the woman who took us on our tour said that very often the women pickers do a better job of cutting away just the right section of grapes due to usually having smaller, more nimble fingers. It's more like having to be a good seamstress than a picker.

Each time the botrytis grapes are picked, a fermentation is begun, separate ones for the Semillon grapes and Sauvignon Blanc. This means that at some points they can have up to 40 different fermentations happening, since there is a different one for each day of picking and for each grape varietal.

The fermantation must be stopped at just the right time to maintain the right balance of sweetness, acidity and alcohol. The wine is then blended, aged in new French oak barrels (each barrel is only used one year for the sweet wine, after which it is used for the dry wine they also produce), and blended again.

After learning all of this, I suddenly felt that maybe the steep pricetag wasn't so steep. Then came time for the tasting.

She gave us a taste of 2007, which is one of the less expensive vintages, but was absolutely delicious nonetheless. Sweet, but not too sweet, with a bright fresh acidity, and amazing notes of dried and fresh apricot, honeysuckle, and vanilla. I would drink this as an aperatif, an appetizer wine with foie gras or cheeses, and as a dessert wine.

In fact, let's be honest, I would just stick a straw in the bottle and drink it all day. It's absolutely delicious. And it can be both a drink-it-now wine and an investment. Because of the balance of sugar, acid and alcohol, these wines age beautifully. Our guide said she tasted a 1904 D'Yquem and it was incredible. Some day...