Wine Advisor
Suduiraut 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Chateau Suduiraut has a comparatively rich, botrytized bouquet with dried honey, pineapple and a touch of Seville orange marmalade, with exquisite definition and focus. The palate is well-balanced, with a viscous texture and a good level of botrytis, demonstrating fine minerality and tautness. Dried mango, quince and spice all interlace the focused finish, which is long in the mouth. Tasted against its peers, this has a higher level of intensity and focus. A superb follow-up to the sensational 2009.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Along with Chateau Rieussec, the Suduiraut 2010 is a candidate for best Sauternes of the vintage. It has a wonderful bouquet with an instantaneous sense of completeness and harmony, with layers of botrytized fruit intermingling with apricot blossom, peach skin and marmalade. This is powerful, but not in your face. There is no need to be. The palate is well-balanced with a viscous opening. There is plenty of botrytis here, good acidity and enormous weight on the finish. Perhaps it needs a little more tension, but otherwise this is a very impressive wine for the Sauternes vintage.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Pale to medium lemon-gold colored, the 2010 Suduiraut features quite a savory nose with notes of lightly browned toast, salted almonds, nutmeg and cinnamon over a core of crème caramel, pear tart and peach cobbler. The palate is decadently sweet, concentrated and unctuous with soft acidity and a spicy finish.
Reviewed by: Yohan Castaing
One of the highest points of this vertical tasting, the 2010 Suduiraut reveals a dense, powerful bouquet of ripe apricots, exotic fruit, mango, pineapple, saffron and spices. More solar than the 2009 and with a full-bodied structure, it’s rich and concentrated, layered and seamless with a fleshy core of fruit and stunning controlled power, finishing long and mineral with bright acids. This stunning blend of 90% Sémillon and 10% Sauvignon Blanc, harvested between September 22 and November 9 in five tries, was matured for 20 months in oak barrels (50% new, 50% one year) and contains 145 grams per liter of residual sugar.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Suduiraut, picked from 22 September until 9 November in five tries through the vineyard, has a drop-dead gorgeous bouquet that is delineated and detailed. There are copious scents of dried honey, apricot, white peach and just a hint of melted candle wax. The palate is very well balanced with great depth. It boasts layers of rich botrytised fruit, you can feel the weight here but not the heaviness thanks to that killer line of acidity. This 2010 has long been one of the finest Sauternes of the vintage and continues to amaze. Fabulous, even if not quite up there with the imperious 2009. 13.8% alcohol, 145gm/L residual sugar. Tasted at the Suduiraut vertical at the château.
About the Producer
Chateau Suduiraut is located in the Sauternes appellation of Bordeaux, France, which is known for its rich and sweet noble rot wines. In the 1855 Sauternes and Barsac classification, Chateau d'Yquem is the only Grand Cru classed. In addition, Château d'Yquem occupies one of the 11 châteaux in the classification that are now classified as First Growths. Château d'Yquem has a long history: in 1580, Nicole d'Allard married Leonard de Suduiraut, and the estate took its name. At the end of the 18th century, Jean Joseph Duroy, nephew of a member of the Suduiraut family at the time, took over the estate and renamed it Cru du Roy. The emblems of the two families, Xukin and Duroy, were then fused together to form the present logo of the estate. The château is a palace-like building with a beautiful garden designed by Le Notre, Louis XIV's royal gardener. In 1992, AXA Millesimes, the French insurance giant, acquired Château Xugene. AXA Millesimes is a powerful group that also owns the famous Pauillac estate, Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron. The 91 hectares of vineyards at Château d'Azur are planted with 90% Semillon and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. Semillon is a traditional Sauternes variety that provides powerful structure to the wines, bringing full-bodied flavors of roasted dried fruit, acacia flowers and candied fruit. Sauvignon Blanc, on the other hand, is an aromatic, high-acid variety with very distinctive aromas of citrus and white peach that add complexity and acidity to the wine. The soil is predominantly gravelly and sandy clay, which is permeable and poor, requiring the vines to be deeply rooted to extract nutrients, resulting in low yields and intense mineral flavors. The gravel on the surface of the soil also absorbs heat from the sun, which helps the grapes to ripen more quickly. The planting density of the Chateau Xugene vineyard is 7,000 vines per hectare, and the average age of the vines is 35 years. The vineyard's proximity to the Ciron and Garonne rivers, with cool nights, early autumn mists and sunny afternoons, creates the right conditions for the formation and growth of noble rot. The winery prunes the grapes short to allow the bunches to enjoy more sunlight. The harvesting process at Château Xugene is very delicate, with workers picking the grapes in batches according to the infestation of noble rot, and even picking a vine several times. In terms of winemaking, Château Xukin adheres to a philosophy of quality first. The hand-picked grapes undergo a long and careful pressing process to obtain the most aromatic juice, and the fermented wine is then matured in oak barrels for 18-24 months to allow the wine to develop its full flavor and structure. The winery has strict quality standards, and if the quality of the wine does not meet expectations in a given year, the winery will even abandon the production of the year's main wine, Chateau Suduiraut, Sauternes, France. Currently, Chateau Suduiraut produces three sweet white wines, including Chateau Suduiraut, Sauternes, France, which are the best expression of the Sauternes terroir.
1948(1)1983(3)1988(1)1989(2)1990(1)1996(3)1997(1)2001(6)2003(4)2004(2)2005(4)2006(2)2009(3)
Package Size
12 x 75cl24 x 37.5cl
