Super-intense and full-throttled, elegant and stylish. Dark amber in colour and rich in complexity, this '83 coats your mouth with butterscotch, dried apricot, fig and spice flavours. Made to age for decades. 98 points, Wine Spectator.
The 1983 ranks among the most concentrated wines from this property over the last 25 years, with a staggering display of extract and a mind-boggling amount of glycerine. The vintage commenced early for Yquem, beginning on September 29 and finishing on November 18. The 1983 is enormous, with huge, honeyed, pineapple, coconut, and caramel flavours, massive extract, and an unctuous quality barely framed by acidity and new oak. The wine has changed little since bottling. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2050. 96 points, Wine Advocate (1993).
...the sheer quality shone through... marvellous. Rich and reverberant with considerable but not excessive sweetness...
19/20 points, jancisrobinson.com, 2014
The ’83 Yquem retains that Barsac-like bouquet with hints of barley sugar, quince, honey and a touch of marmalade. It has very fine definition and a greater sense of exuberance than hitherto encountered. The palate is very intense, superb vibrant acidity, great sense of tension with honey, marmalade, creme-brulee and apricots. 94 points, Neal Martin, Wine Advocate.
Sauternes is home to arguably the most prestigious and long-lived sweet wines in the world. Located 65 km south of the city of Bordeaux at the southern tip of the Graves, the appellation has 2100 ha of vineyards planted on flat, alluvial gravels overlying thick layers of limestone. Although viewed as one appellation, Sauternes actually consists of five communes; Barsac, Bommes, Fargues, Preignanc, and Sauternes with Barsac also a designated appellation in its own right. What makes Sauternes unique is its special mesoclimate caused by the confluence of the Ciron and the Garonne rivers.
The region experiences evening mists in autumn which set in until late morning and are subsequently burnt off by warm sunny afternoons. It is precisely these conditions that provide the ideal environment for the growth of botrytis cinerea – a fungus that attacks the grapes, causing them to dehydrate leaving sweet shrivelled fruit, ideal for sweet wine production. Sauternes wines are made predominantly from Sémillon with Sauvignon Blanc with small amounts of Muscadelle. Golden in colour with enticing aromas and flavours of honey, acacia, stone-fruit, candied citrus and marmalade, classic Sauternes is rich, unctuous and beautifully balanced by fresh acidity. Capable of long-ageing, the wines turn deep amber with age, taking on more tertiary caramel flavours over time.
