Sauternes

Isn’t it ironic that whereas most peolple are first attracted to a reasonably sweet wine, it is usallly only the established wine-drinker who genuinely enjoys the sweetest wines of all – the dessert wines made with the assistance of that most fickle of fungi, Botrytis cinerea. With an affectation that non-wine drinkers find suspect in the least, we have even christened it `Noble Rot’, provided of course that its interference has been of the favourable kind.

The French examples of these wines are made in the district of Sauternes, and outstanding years can produce breathtaking wine, light-years away from the sort of partially-fermented piddle found in flagons bearing the same name.

Today the up-market Australian dinner-party would want a pretty good excuse for not finishing with the rich, concentrated, sweet sensation of a dessert wine as it rolls over the palate. Go to a restaurant and any good wine-waiter will work overtime to ensure that before you meander your way back to the Transport of Delight you will at least have emptied the contents of one bottle or a stubby of Sauternes.

Indeed we have now begun to drink these wines, and our own rapidly-improving styles of this wine, with increasing abandon, with no apparent regard to our dental health.

English wine authority Hugh Johnston speaks in characteristically floral language when describing Sauternes. He’s entitled to. He also writes gardening books. ” An extraordinarily concentrated golden dessert wine…some forceful, hot and treacly…but at best thick with sugar, yet gentle, creamy nutty and honeyed.”

Hmmm… Remarkably enough, by French standards it is a comparatively modern style of wine, dating back only to 1836, a mere 150 years. To think – it might have happened in Australia first by accident !

Naturally enough, all the major Chateaux claim to be the first to make the wine, but Chateau La Tour-Blanche puts forward the best claim. Its proprietor, Monsieur Focke, enjoyed the great sweet whites of the Rhine to the extent that he wanted to make something in a similar vein.

All the whites made in the Bordeaux region of which Sauternes is a part to this time were dry, so M. Focke used the local Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle still found to a small extent in the lesser Sauternes .

We are finding new ways to drink Sauternes with and around food as if we had to and there has been a very wise move to sell most in half-bottles. As the wines are so luscious, intense and sweet, it is beyond the limits of most mortal mouths to handle more than a glass or two at the end of a meal, when Sauternes is traditionally brought to the table.

Lying between the rivers Ciron and Garonne, the Sauternes district is one of the most picturesque in winemaking France. Its best and most famous chateaux are perched atop the rises of the undulating landscape, from which they overlook rolling green hills covered by a patchwork of green meadow and vineyard, dissected by an apparently random mishmash of roads and tracks.

Sauternes was asleep the day I was there. I firmly believe that you could launch an Exocet up the local streets at most times without the fear of striking a passing human being. I barely saw any of them, and the only ones that moved were asking for another drink at the Auberge.

The Sauternes district is made up of five communes, namely, Preignac, Fargues, Bommes, Sauternes and Barsac, all of which but Barsac lie between the two rivers, Ciron and Garonne. Barsac is immediately to the north and west of the junction of the rivers. The Ciron has characteristically cold water, which is said to be responsible for the humid conditions which encourage the local growth of the noble rot, or `pouritture noble’.

As long as the laws of the local appellation are adhered to, all of the communes are able to give their wine the name `Sauternes’, and Barsac is the only one able to use its own name as an alternative to `Sauternes’.

No introduction to Sauternes could be complete without mentioning the extraordinary Chateau d’Yquem, which consistently manages to sell its surprisingly small output of 10 000 cases each year at a price that must leave its neighbours green with envy. Sauternes was the only area outside the Medoc to be classified for the Universal Exhibition of 1855, and Yquem was made a First Great Growth, leaving it in a class all of its own in Sauternes, and Bordeaux.

The fruit for Sauternes is picked only when over-ripe, and rotten with an infection of Botrytis cinerea mould. In a typical autumn of humid, misty mornings and dry, sunny afternoons, and given a healthy, ripe and undamamged crop, the fungus invades the grape surface and begins to feed and grow inside, eventually taking over the berry’s metabolism.

Noble rot evaporates water out of the grape and thus concentrates the sugar inside. It concentrates acid too – but not to the same extent. The fungus also produces wines of higher glycerol levels, contributing to their thick, rich texture. They also owe much of their flavour to the presence of the mould, for botrytis imparts apricot, citric and honeyed flavours to these and similar styles of sweet white dessert wine.

Seing that the crop ripens unevenly, there must be several `passes’ over the vineyard, each time selecting the best rotten ?! grapes by hand. It is common for a Sauternes vineyard to be picked five or six times in this manner, and not unheard of for ten or eleven pickings to be made. The vintage can run over a period of four to six weeks, and the fruit comes in at a very ripe 18-20 degrees Baume.

The quantity of Sauternes harvested is minimal next to the size of its vineyard. Each vine will only produce two or three glasses of wine per year in Australia we work in litres per vine , working out at around one tonne per acre.

Sauternes are made from an average of 70 Semillon and 25 Sauvignon Blanc, the remainder being a little Muscadelle, which the best wines don’t bother with. In Barsac there is a little more Sauvignon Blanc in the `cepage’, or vineyard blend.

The rotten grapes are gently crushed before pressing. I was surprised to learn that most of the top chateaux are extraordianrily advanced in their fermentation techniques; Chateau Rieussec have computer-controlled fermentation and refrigeration in stainless steel tanks with freon systems. The fermentation lasts for something between 15 and 31 days, and a large proportion of solids are included to give greater depth of flavour and body to the wine.

The fermentation usually stops with the addition of sulphur-dioxide, or SO2, which kills the yeast which carry out the fermentation. Sauternes weigh in at around 13-16 ! alcohol, by volume, and retain about 120 grammes per litre sugar or 90 grammes per bottle, weight watchers! , so I hope you have a cheap dentist handy.

Sauternes is aged in wood for up to three years, most commonly between 18 and 24 months. The best chateaux use an average of 30 new oak every year. Please login to post comment