What Nectar!! Suduiraut 1899-2015
BY NEAL MARTIN |
And God Created Nectar
God reclines upon His velvet chaise longue and reflects upon a hard week in the office. He forms a mental checklist of tasks completed.
Heaven and earth... Tick.
Dark and light... Tick.
Land and sea... Sorted.
Grass and herb yielding seed... And it is so.
On the seventh day He chills out and leafs through the Sunday broadsheets, predictably devoted to the creation of the entire universe, a feat so awe-inspiring that He wonders if anyone will believe it. Before signing off, he makes one final check that everything is tickety-boo and that the sun rises each morning, and oceans ebb and flow, and salmon migrate upstream, and zebras are striped and leopards spotted, and flowers bloom in springtime and grapes turn into wine and...
He freezes and slaps his forehead. Omnipotence clearly does not preclude absent-mindedness. He has forgotten to check that the fruit in Sauternes turns into wine and left bunches dangling on the vines. Unforgivable. He must have been distracted by sculpting those Norwegian fjords. Throwing down the papers, He dons his robes and examines the Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. It is a sorry sight. Fog has rolled in from the river and the shriveled berries are rotten. Out of curiosity, He nibbles a berry. Astonishing sweet nectar fills His mouth. It tastes like melted sunshine. Its unctuous texture laps against His senses. What nectar!
“I am a genius,” He roars in relief, having created serendipity via Sauternes and Sauternes via serendipity.
A lot has happened since the beginning of time. The alchemical discovery of pourriture noble has provided wine-lovers the elixir of Sauternes since the early 19th century and yet, since the halcyon days when Russian czars poured Yquem on their cornflakes each morning, Sauternes has been sidelined in the minds of the cognoscenti. ’Tis the wine we adore but habitually forget to serve at the end of a meal. In order to rectify matters, in the coming weeks I will publish three Sauternes-themed verticals, commencing with Château Suduiraut. Many of these bottles came direct from the château’s cellars, and were augmented by bottles I sampled at private tastings. AXA Millésimes Managing DirectorChristian Seely and head winemaker Pierre Montégut offered their own insights to create what may well constitute one of the most comprehensive articles ever written on Suduiraut. This is a long piece, so there will be a brief intermission after “Vinification.”
History
Sauternes might not be fashionable at the moment; however, the wines remain quite brilliant and often represent great value. The first in a series of verticals looks at one of the finest properties, Château Suduiraut, with one of the most comprehensive verticals you will ever read spanning three centuries.
