Wine Advisor
d'Yquem 2005
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The pale to medium lemon-gold colored 2005 d'Yquem opens with a provocative, mineral and earth-tinged nose of chalk dust, wet pebbles and dried wild mushrooms over a core of warm apricots, green mango, honeyed toast, ginger and pink grapefruit plus wafts of honeycomb, orange blossoms and saffron. The palate confirms the wine is still a little closed and shut down, offering achingly gorgeous glimpses at the tightly wound, intricate layers structured with a racy acid line and wonderfully creamy texture, finishing incredibly long and perfumed. This decadent flavor bomb still needs a good five to seven years in bottle before it is set to go off, but oh what a spectacle it will give then!
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at the château, the 2005 Chateau d’Yquem delivers a similar performance as last year. Lucid in colour, the bouquet is detailed with very pure honey, vanilla and almond scents, still a little new oak to be fully assimilated but demonstrating superb focus. The palate is virtually identical to last year's bottle: exquisite balance and perfectly judged acidity, but perhaps just gaining a little richness and viscosity over the last 12 months. There is an appealing completeness to this Yquem and whilst I would not place it amongst the likes of 2001 or 2009, it comfortably sits just behind.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at the property 12 months on from my last visit, my note for the Château d'Yquem 2005 is almost exactly the same. I feel that there is still just a little new oak to be resolved on the nose. But the palate is extremely well balanced, perhaps just a little nuttier than I remember from 12 months ago, with hints of white chocolate and crème brûlée just appearing on the finish. This needs another decade, but it is a very serious Yquem in the making. Tasted April 2015.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
No tasting note given.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Somewhat muted floral aromas of jasmine, orange blossom and honeysuckle over candied pineapple. A waft of anise and some cedar. The palate is quite restrained with well balanced sweetness versus medium to high acidity. Very long finish – a mineral character coming through. Tasted August 2009.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Served from an ex-chateau bottle. The 2005 Chateau d’Yquem is similar to the 2006 in that it deserves aeration. The bouquet is well-defined, although there is clearly some new oak that will need another two or three years to fully integrate. The aromatics seem to show a little more botrytis than the 2006, richer and headier. The palate is unctuous on the entry, beautifully balanced and lacquers the mouth in pure honeyed fruit interlaced with white pepper, quince jus and nectarine. Comparing the two, the 2006 has a little more tension and race, although the 2005 has a touch more persistency. The 2006 may well turn out to be the better of the two vintages in the long run (hence the plus sign), although the 1995 is a Yquem with panache to spare. Drink now-2040. Tasted March 2014.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted single blind at Southwold. This is a little blowsy on the nose at first, presence of warm alcohol, honeyed fruit, lanolin and yellow flowers. It needs to calm down because the palate exudes class. Beautifully balanced, good minerality, fine tension with touches of acacia honey, citrus lemon, Satsuma and quince towards the finish. Very well defined but needs time to be tamed. Drink 2012-2040. Tasted January 2009.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The 2005 d'Yquem continues to drink beautifully today, evoking aromas of honey, saffron, vanilla pod, apricot, jasmine and orange peel. Full-bodied, sensual and juicy, it’s medium to full-bodied, with a seamless texture and a perfectly balanced palate, finishing fruity and racy. Although still a little closed and in a rather discreet phase, it has magnificent aging potential, and readers with bottles in their cellars should leave them to mature for 10 to 20 years.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2005 Yquem is limpid golden in hue. The bouquet is gorgeous, finely-tuned and precise with clear honey, vanilla pod and saffron, less of the almond that I have noticed previously. The palate is built around its exquisite poise, the acidity keeping this Yquem on its tip-toes. As I have noted before, it appears to be gaining in concentration and viscosity with age, lovely fig and tangerine notes combining with a slight nuttiness on the finish. Tasted at 67 Pall Mall in London.
About the Producer
Chateau d'Yquem is located in the north-eastern part of the Sauternes wine producing village in the Bordeaux region of France and is one of the most prestigious chateaux in the Graves Sauternes appellation. It was named a Premier Cru Superieur in the 1855 Sauternes and Barsac Classification, the only Bordeaux chateau to be awarded this distinction. At the end of the 19th century, a barrel of wine was bought by the Grand Duke Constantine for 20,000 gold francs, a news story that grabbed the headlines and made Château Djinn famous at home and abroad. At the end of the 20th century, the French luxury goods giant Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton (LVMH) bought a majority stake in Château Djinn for a large sum of money and became the majority shareholder, thus opening a new chapter in the development of Château Djinn. Château Djinn has 113 hectares of vineyards, of which only 100 are in constant production. Every year, 2-3 hectares of old vines are pulled out of the vineyard and the land is left fallow for a year, while the newly planted vines do not produce any grapes for the first 5 years of the vintage. The vineyard has a top soil of pebbles and coarse gravel, which absorbs heat very well, and a subsoil of clay, which has good water storage capacity. The vineyard is planted with 75% Semillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc. The vineyard is pruned to reduce yields by pruning and controlling the size of the canopy to increase the flavour concentration of the fruit. During the harvest season, the winery employs a large number of people to hand-pick the ripest grapes and those that have been properly infested with noble rot. The harvest is usually carried out in 5 or 6 rounds and is very rigorous. The picked grapes are sent to the winery within an hour, after which the grapes are pressed for 3-4 rounds, increasing the sugar content and quality of the juice with each pressing. The fermentation takes place in oak barrels, only new barrels made of good quality oak, during which the wine is closely monitored and its condition is regularly analysed. The finished wine is aged separately for 6-8 months, after which the winemaker blends the wine in the following spring and discards those wines that do not meet the requirements. The blended wine is then matured in the cellars for 20 months, during which time the barrels are refilled twice a week and the wine is decanted 15 times to remove the coarse sludge, while the fine sludge is removed by a clarification process. At the end of the maturation, the winemaker conducts a blind tasting to re-qualify the wine and determine the final percentage of the blend for the Grand Cru. Château d'Yquem, Sauternes, France, the main wine of Château d'Yquem, is known for its complex, concentrated and rather sweet taste, with crisp acidity and a well-balanced sweetness, and its excellent ageing potential. The wine has excellent potential to age for a century or more in some vintages, and with time the aromas and flavours become more complex and attractive, with the wine gradually changing colour from bright straw yellow to golden brown, amber and caramel. The wine has received full 100 points from Robert Parker and his team for the 1811, 1847, 1945, 2001, 2009 and 2015. The estate also produces a secondary wine, Chateau d'Yquem "Y", Bordeaux, France, which is a powerful dry It is a powerful dry white wine, usually made from Sauvignon Blanc and a small amount of Semillon, with an average annual production of around 10,000 bottles, usually with an alcohol content of 14% and a very rich and balanced nose and flavour, with a subtle sweetness.
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Package Size
1 x 5L12 x 37.5cl12 x 75cl6 x 37.5cl
