Château d'Yquem, 1er Grand Cru Classé, Sauternes, 2020

Name: Château d'Yquem, 1er Grand Cru Classé, Sauternes
Brand: Château d'Yquem
Price: 160.73 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2013 2015 2020 2021 2022

justerini & brooks tasting note

Produced from 75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc with 135 g/L of residual sugar and a pH of 3.79. The 2020 Yquem is supremely elegant, a taut, refined, effortless wine of length and poise. Initially this is quite an extrovert showing plenty of exotic fruits such as pineapple, mandarin and orange peel. It’s airy and graceful, yet there’s wonderful intensity and vitality on the palate. Although focussed and direct, we were impressed by the breadth to the flavours: hints of spice, brioche, marmalade, apricot and lemon zest. This wonderfully crystalline Yquem is already expressive and a joy to taste, however, we have no doubt this is a wine of real finesse and botrytis character, which will evolve and develop gracefully over many decades.

critic reviews

94.5/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2020 Yquem has a slightly more Germanic nose than its peers, with a touch of petrol behind the veneer of dried honey, apricot and saffron. The palate is well balanced, with just a little oak to be subsumed. It’s very poised. Well-judged acidity drives through the harmonious finish. Give this three or four years in bottle for that wood to be assimilated, and you will have a sophisticated Sauternes on your hands (and a score in line with the one tasted at the estate in 2023). Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

DRINKING WINDOW 2027 - 2048

date of review 11/2024

94/100Yohan Castaing,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2020 d'Yquem presents a fresh bouquet with aromas of white fruits, orchard fruits and mango, complemented by a hint of spring flowers. Its perfectly balanced and moderately weighted compared to other vintages, making it a tense, penetrating dYquem. Despite the challenges of the growing season and a brief harvest (which began on September 30th and concluded on October 12th), d'Yquem's team managed to produce a mere 40,000 bottles, a modest yield in recent years.

DRINKING WINDOW 2023 - 2040

date of review 10/2023

97/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

The 2020 Château d'Yquem a blend of 75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc. It has 135 grams per liter of residual sugar and a pH of 3.79. Pale lemon-gold colored, citrus and baking spice notes emerge slowly from the glass, rising to offer well-defined scents of candied ginger, orange blossoms, allspice, and almond tart, leading to a flamboyant core of peach cobbler, ripe, juicy pineapple, jasmine tea, and apple butter with a waft of saffron. The palate is full-bodied and characteristically rich, yet possesses impressive tension and therefore stunning harmony. Layers of exotic spices and fragrant white flower accents fill the palate, leading to a long finish with lingering chalk and mineral nuances. It’s a showy Yquem that is gregarious in youth but is reserving that extra something for those with the patience to wait twenty years or more.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2055

date of review 03/2023