'95 D'Yquem

[afn33282]

Hey eGullet,

Well I will be splitting a half-bottle of the '95 D'Yquem on June 16th with my boss and three of our wine shop customers, and I was wondering: what should we expect? I have never had a wine that is supposed to be on this level, and have never had a dessert wine before. I organized this get-together because I thought it would fun and a rare chance to try one of the world's great wines at a price I can swing. Any thoughts on the vintage? How about: is it ready to drink? Ten years seems like that threshold at which it should be beginning to transform.... Flavor notes I should taste for? I want to get as much out my 2 1/2 oz. as possible, so all thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much.

[Daniel Rogov]

Here's my own tasting note for the wine in question:

Chateau d’Yquem, Sauternes, 1995: Medium-to full bodied, light golden in color with orange reflections, this tempting and concentrated Yquem is already showing off nicely with quince, orange rind, vanilla and lightly spicy oak. Excellent balance between fruits, wood, natural acidity and moderate sweetness bode well for the future. As the wine matures look for the development of honeyed summer fruit and cinnamon flavors. Approachable now but best starting in 2006 and then cellaring nicely until 2025-2030, perhaps longer. Score 94. (Tasted 27 Jun 2001)

[afn33282]

Well tonight's the big night. My boss is getting some Roquefort..... Tasting notes to follow.

Chris

[bushey]

Can't wait to read your notes.

We recently had a bit of a debacle with a half-bottle of 1993 d'Yquem. I'd never had a Sauternes, but my husband has been fortunate enough to sample some excellent d'Yquem vintages with a group of buddies (they have an annual Wine Debauchery weekend and the host of the group has a phenomenal cellar). We picked up the '93 for what seemed to be a reasonable price ($88), but had done absolutely no research.

We packed it carefully, chilled with blue ice, for our trip to the Caribbean and opened it on our last night. I made a little tray of cheese and grapes and we sat on the front porch, with a view of St Kitts. Opened the wine and..........it just didn't seem right. There was a little bit of grayish green mold on the business end of the cork, and the nose had a bit of a moldy smell at first, too. The wine wasn't exactly horrible, but it wasn't good, either. I suspected something was wrong with it, brought it back, schlepped it to the store where we bought it and the owner claimed it was absolutely fine. Said they smelled honey, white flowers, etc. It's against their policy to taste the wine. A little more research on our part revealed that 93 was an awful vintage: caveat emptor.

As a surprise, while I was away last week my husband bought a half-bottle of the 97, which is supposed to be a wonderful vintage.

[afn33282]

I suspected something was wrong with it, brought it back, schlepped it to the store where we bought it and the owner claimed it was absolutely fine. Said they smelled honey, white flowers, etc. It's against their policy to taste the wine.

←

How horrible! I'm so sorry. It sounds like you are shopping at the wrong wine shop, too--if the owner can't taste the wine........? I don't know much, but I work at a wine shop, and my boss would have gone quite a bit further to put your mind at rest. Maybe it was a bad vintage, but I think they at least owed you the reassurance of tasting it in front of you and either confirming that it was bad, or candidly telling you that while not flawed, it is not spectacular. Ideally they ought to know a bit about a wine they're selling for $88, or at least look it up for you on the spot. Mold on the cork? I'm dubious. Just my disorganized two cents.

[bushey]

afn,

I think it's common practice not to taste a wine that's brought back, because they have no way of knowing if it was "doctored". A friend did eventually find a review, by Parker, I think, and it was rated quite low. I wasn't so displeased with the whole experience, but my husband was and got into a bit of an email exchange with the owner/manager. This is a very large store that's known for having great selection and prices -- and they do. They also have a fantastic selection of gourmet groceries and meats, so I will continue to shop there, but my husband will not. In the end we were offered a $75 gift certificate which we have not acknowledged (yet).

In retrospect, they absolutely should have been more gracious from the outset. I find it hard to believe that a store of that caliber would not know that 93 was a poor vintage. They did say if it weren't so expensive a half-bottle they would pull another one to taste and have us compare. At the very least, they should have said something along the lines of "the wine appears to be fine, but we're sorry you were not happy with it. Please accept (fill in the blank): a gift certificate for $ xx, a similar wine from another producer (obviously, not as expensive but it's the thought that counts).

Ironically, the store where my husband bought the 97 d'Yquem used to be managed by this same guy. It's a little further away and a little more expensive, but they have some great wines and were very solicitous in helping him locate this vintage.

So, now you know the whole story and can probably understand better why I'm so looking forward to hearing about your tasting tonight!

[melkor]

It doesn't seem to me that a store should be responsible for refunding a wine based on the customer not enjoying it. If it were a flawed bottle (cooked, corked, etc) then sure, but it sounds like your husband bought a bottle after doing insufficient research and you didn't enjoy the wine. Almost everyone I know has made expensive mistakes at one point or another when buying wine, I know that I certainly have. Clearly they are interested in retaining you as a customer or they wouldn't have issued a store credit.

Parker incidentally doesn't list a rating for the 93 yquem, the wine spectator rates it 86 points with a review that starts out 'Rather weak for Yquem' and ends with unsual advice for the a wine from this property suggesting the wine be drunk now (the review was published in 2000).

In general I'd advise against drinking yquem young, lesser wines show as well or better early on in their lives - yquem doesn't really shine until its spent a few decades in the bottle.

[Brad Ballinger]

There was a little bit of grayish green mold on the business end of the cork, and the nose had a bit of a moldy smell at first, too.

←

If by "business end," you mean the end that has contact with the wine, the green-gray color may or may not mean anything. If on the end not in contact with the wine, it means even less. I've seen with many different colors on the business end where the wine was fine. And I've seen plenty that look "perfect" and the wine was horribly corked.

Some wines will have a little "bottle stink" when you first pull the cork. This usually blows off fairly quickly.

[bushey]

I agree that the store has no obligation whatsoever to replace a wine, or compensate us, for a wine we just didn't care for. However, there's a lot to be said for good customer service............

When I called the store and spoke to the manager about the wine, I let him know that I wasn't sure what was wrong with the wine, but it just didn't seem right to me. It wasn't corked, although it did have a strong moldy smell to me that didn't blow off. I wanted to use the experience of bringing the wine back as a way to learn more about wine, etc. but some of the things they said just didn't hold. For instance, he remarked that the d'Yquem has a fairly low alcohol content -- when I checked the label it was 14% -- not low by my standards. Another wine manager said he smelled the honey and white flowers, yet none of the tasting notes we've found for this vintage mention those descriptors.

It was a good learning experience, and I harbor no bitterness, but I'm still convinced that bottle was flawed. It was so unpleasant that I didn't even want to give it some air time and re-taste.

[wkl]

I find it very strange they wouldn't taste the wine. It certainly sounded flawed from the description, or over the hill. In either case I think they should have given you a store credit without any argument.

It sounds like you returned almost all of the bottle, which should show you had serious doubts about the wines integrity.

[afn33282]

Well, this is late, as the tasting was on the 16th, but here goes. Please remember that I am a novice, so my tasting notes won't be the most articulate....

My boss had mentioned about a week before that he wanted to open up a different bottle before we tasted the D'Yquem to get thing going a bit. When Mike G. and Steve and Diane C. arrived, he did that (an Italian red) and we all settled into some light but excellent conversation about food, wine, local restaurants, etc. He also broke out the cheese--our nearby shop was out of Roquefort (!), the classic match for Sauternes, and the shop helper recommended Point Reyes a blue from California. Was it a good substitution? I don't know. It was good cheese, though. After the red was gone, he got down on eye level and carefully poured out equal servings into his four borrowed and my one newly-purchased Spiegelau dessert wine glasses. The atmosphere was a little charged....

Color: An attractive mid-range gold. Very attractive.

Nose: A deep, very raw honey aroma. It also had a deep extra quality that was almost dirt-like, in positive way. I won't say earthy, as in moist earth after a rain earthiness, but there was definately a dry-ish soil-ish quality in there somewhere. Call me crazy.... Added a complex note, that I obviously couldn't identify. Botrytis? Of course, I was furiously sniffing for white flowers, and I may have imagined them, but couldn't truly say.

At this point I looked around, ready to say "who wants to go first?," when Diane took her first sip. We all followed suit.

Flavor: Deep honeyed flavors to start with. And that quality I couldn't satisfactorily describe above.... The flavor was very intense, insistent, and super powerful. It kept almost throbbing in my mouth..... may need to edit that.

It was definately a well-balanced, well-rounded wine, with immense presence. Not to say it was big, but definately super-charged. My boss said later "candied apricots." I'm not sure about that one, but I don't doubt he tasted them.

Subjective impressions: Confession time. It was beautful in the glass. It smelled awesome. And the flavor? At first, I was like, "hmm. Wow. That's impressive." And I waited a second for the joy to kick in. It didn't, so I took another sip. Just as impressive. I thought to myself, "I really want to like this." Meanwhile, everybody was oohing and wowing and mmmming and saying "nice." I kept going. And the objective impression of tasting a world-class wine began to be overshadowed that I really did not love what I was drinking. As I continued to sip, I found I did not even like what I was drinking. The last few sips I took in a bit of a small gulp, to kind of get it all over with, I am afraid to say. It was definately an awesome wine, again objectively speaking, but I am sad to say that I did not at all like the most fabled dessert wine in the world. It was so intense, too, that I imagine there would never have been two ways about it; either the category was for me, or it was not, and that wine presented itself so strongly and so well that I was left with no doubts clouded by an overly subtle experience.

At first I was at a loss, and after the others left, I somewhat reluctantly confided my reaction to my boss, afraid he might think I was an idiot. Of course I soon remebered one of my favorite mantras, "different strokes, I guess." It definately gave me food for thought for a couple of days, though. I have already discerned that I will probably never love wine like I love coffee and tea, but after tasting one of the ne-plus-ultra examples of wine, might wine eventually never have a place in my life at all? Ah well, I had already found a few wines I love (Muga Rioja, Altos Las Hormigas Malbec, Green and Red Zin), and am still holding out hopes for the dessert wine category. I just won't be dropping money on a Sauternes any time soon.

The more serious among you may say that such a wine was wasted on somebody who was going to be this irreverant and/or inept at processing/reporting my impressions. I did my best to get the most out of the experience though, and am glad I started this project. You only live once, and before I knew that some wine bars sell D'Yquem by the glass, my idea was that it would be a long time before I might have this chance again. Anyway, hope this post amused you. Your reactions?

edited to change "tasing notes" to "tasting notes." That would be an entirely different post, on an entirely different website.

Edited June 27, 2005 by afn33282 (log)

[Rebel Rose]

It could be that this is one of these experiences that one must warm up to through similar experiences. And if you haven't yet found a dessert wine (or two) that you love, perhaps you will still enjoy the discovery of drinking the right dessert wine at the right moment.

Don't let your confidence quaver. Your review was very well thought out and tactile. I find your honesty refreshing! Acknowledging your own tastes is important when recommending wines to others.

Years ago, when Opus One was all the rage, I was invited to several annual blind tastings of top-rated California cabernets with at least one French ringer. The Opus One was always around number nine out of twelve. I simply preferred a different style, and I still do. A professor from Florida called me all in a dither because he had acquired a case of Opus (I've forgotten the vintage). He wanted to know when he should drink it. I couldn't tell him I would rather sit on a case of duck eggs than Opie, so I gently asked him what flavors he discerned in the wine. He hadn't tried it; he had bought the case on the recommendation of a wine retailer. So I told him I not tried that particular vintage (which was true) and referred him back to the retailer, and to the winery--someone who could, or at least should be, more passionate about the wine. Sometimes a highly regarded wine is just not our 'cup of tea.'