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2009 Sauternes - Latest Tasting Notes From Bordeaux Expert

I've got the 2009 Sauternes all lined up in a row in my tasting room to see how they're coming along. So I thought while I'm here I'd share my tasting notes with you.

It's a few months since wine journalists and wine experts got their first tasting of this outstanding 2009 Sauternes vintage, but things change quite quickly, so let me share what has come out of this tasting.

First up, the Domaine de l'Alliance is still looking fabulous. It's our little find of the vintage – it's a super, super wine. I can best describe it as First Growth quality at Cru Bourgeois (much cheaper) prices.

Following that, Chateau d'Arche is looking very fresh now, whereas Bastor Lamontagne is still on the lighter side, and Chateau Broustet is still on the slightly heavy style, perhaps more of a dessert wine.

Chateau Caillou is tasting very lemony and fine and Chateau Cantegril, the other wine of Denis Dubourdieu of Chateau Doisy Daene, has a lovely, beautiful, refined texture.

La Clotte-Cazalis is a light, fine, slightly more acid tasting barsac, but very refreshing.

Doisy Daene as we've said over and over again, probably the best Doisy Daene ever — it's very sweet, but very fine and you don't feel the sweetness.

Doisy Vedrines, has that lovely sort of minty, almost chewing gum kind of freshness with enormous sweetness, and Chateau Filhot is beautiful and minerally.

Chateau Lamothe-Guignard is fairly fleshy and forward and extremely satisfying. It won't go a hundred years but will be great over the next 5. Chateau Liot in the same way is a little bit less fleshy and has more finesse.

Chateau de Malle has been a beautiful success and it's very fine! It's not a wine that has had the top reputation in the last few years but this should really put it back on the map.

Chateau de Myrat on the other hand, which does already have the acclaim, is very full and very rich, with a hundred and fifty three grams per litre of sweetness, super wine!

Last in this section is Chateau Partarrieu which is one of our top lesser wines.

Now, we're going to move on to the first growths — Clos Haut-Peyraguey has wonderful finesse! A beautiful finesse and sweetness.

Chateau Coutet barsac, again is lovely and fresh and incredibly sweet. Really super coutet! This will go down as a legend, I think.

Chateau de Fargues is horribly expensive, but horribly good! Just tasting it now and it's coming from strength to strength. I think it didn't show as well as it should've done in the earlier tastings. It's always a late developer and it's got another two and a half years to go in the barrel.

Chateau Guiraud is a more zippy tasting wine. This is lovely finesse, beautiful fruit, lovely but righteous, not the sweetest of all of them, deliberately so, but very balanced and really nice. That's a super, super Guiraud.

Lafaurie-Peyraguey is just a little touch heavier, more of a dessert wine, very mineral on the taste and lovely thickness in the palate.

Chateau Rabaud-Promis has got a lovely tensile sort of acid energy to it, which will make it a lovely aperitif wine I would've thought. Also of course a dessert wine because it is incredibly sweet. But it's got this lovely acidity, and there's lovely freshness coming from that.

Raymond Lafon is the deal of the vintage. They made it deliberately so. They wanted to sell their wines, it's a big crop. Instead of fooling around by trying to get an ten extra Euros, they've really done the job on pricing. This is one where I would say, run don't walk to buy this, it's going to really turn into something very, very special.

Rayne-Vigneau is a complete turnaround, this vintage. Rayne-Vigneau is very rich, 160 grams of sweetness. Very, very fine and very zippy. It's under new management,and they've produced a fantastic wine. I think this is the beginning of a new wave of Rayne-Vigneau and it will probably gradually get itself a fantastic reputation.

And then finally, Sigalas-Rabaud, which is back to the lovely almost sort of Reisling German style of the 60s and 70s. Beautiful wine, very, very fresh, lovely fragrance of fruit and yet very, very sweet!

So that's the line up for now. I've got a few missing such as La Tour Blanche and a few others, but anyway, I am more and more impressed with this vintage as we go on. Some of these wines were showing less well before and are now really beginning to get some structure due to that little bit of a 2001 quality creeping into this vintage.
About the Author

Renowned Sauternes and Barsac expert, Bill Blatch has over 30 years experience in the wine trade. Get more advice on Sauternes at Bill's Blog
http://bordeauxgold.com/
and plenty more wine tasting videos.

I really like the name Caillou but how can i spell it differently so people don't mistake it with Cai-ooo?

I know Caillou is pronounced Kai-oo but i love it when it is pronounced Cai-loo. How can i spell it so people don't get confused? And what do you think of the name?

Caillou is a snobby 4(or so) year old cartoon character

Lol I remember him from when I was young, I loved him.

Kailoo , Ki'Loo *Yes, it's tryndee...*
Cailoo ,
Cai-Loo

My favorite is Kailoo

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