Sauternes

Often paired with cheese and sweets, try pairing this wine with crispy Peking duck with plum sauce or game meats such as guinea fowl or even pigeon in red wine sauce, as the richness of this wine will create a heavenly marriage between the strong flavours.

ocated on the highest hill in Sauternes, d'Yquem enjoys some of the best growing conditions in the whole appellation. The 110-hectare vineyard is planted with 80% Sèmillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc. Harvest is painstaking; 150 highly skilled pickers pass through the rows selecting grapes berry by berry to ensure that only the finest botrytized fruit is used.

Yquem tends to need around 20 years of cellaring for the oak to begin to integrate fully and this is beginning to really hit its stride.

In 1993 Chateau d'Yquem celebrated 400 years of ownership by the same family. In 1593 the Sauvage family bought this estate which came into the Lur Saluces patrimony when Francoise Joséphine de Sauvage married Count Louis Amédée de Lur Saluces in 1785. Marquis Bertrand de Lur Saluces was one of the 20th century's most important personalities in the world of wine. Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces has followed in his Uncle Betrand's footsteps since 1968. Highly motivated to perfect this prestigious product while respecting tradition he is determined to offer maximum quality. All those who love this inimitable wine from Jefferson to Pamela Harriman former U.S. Ambassador by way of great Duke Constantine have approved this philosophy from vintage to vintage. Yquem is the result of painstaking efforts by everyone who works on the estate. However nature is the major factor in making the most of the rare soil of Yquem.