Colin Hay om:
Y de Chateau d' Yquem
A wine of staggering elegance and freshness given the meteorological conditions out of which it was forged. The earliest vintage ever recorded here, with the picking dates chosen to retain all the structuring freshness of the Sauvignon Blanc. This is profoundly complex, even in its infancy. Blanched almonds; white pear; elderflower and elderberry; hawthorn; green leaf tea; mimosa; lime, confit lime and lemongrass; a little apricot and peach skin; white wine gums (remember them?) – with that gentle hint of sugar; toasted brioche with melted beurre salé. I love the subtle hint of the residual sugar here which just reinforces the depth and richness and gives the citrus notes more to play with in extracting tension. There’s a subtle and very gentle bitter note here, too (coming I think from the early botrytis, castamé) – caramelised mandarin peel, blood orange and Seville marmalade perhaps. This is an Y with significant aging potential, of course, but it is also already highly accessible, its complexity already almost fully formed. That said, I love the additional leafiness that comes through with aeration – gooseberry leaf, orange blossom and white currant above all – suggesting the value of the decanter. Great precision and a technical triumph over climatic adversity that should give us great confidence for the future.
