Wine of the week: a thoroughly delicious sweetie from Bordeaux
A juicy, honeyed, orange-blossom theme combined with neat acidity make this a thoroughly delicious wine.
2013 Castelnau de Suduiraut, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France
£14.99, half bottle, reduced to £12.99 each in a “mix six”, Majestic.co.uk; £15.50, exelwines.co.uk; £16.87, strictlywine.co.uk; £16.80, shelvedwine.com; £16.95, fintrywines.co.uk; £17.77, winepoole.co.uk; £17.99, handford.net.
One of the first truly fine wines that I ever tasted, back in 1987, was 1983 Château Suduiraut, and one of the most memorable was the 1899 vintage I tasted a few years later. This estate has always been one of my favourite sweet-wine properties. The other day I had the great pleasure of Zooming with Suduiraut’s technical director, Pierre Montégut. We chatted about the dry white project here and we tasted the soon to be released 2020 Blanc Sec de Suduiraut. A plush vintage, this is a seriously attractive, dry wine that should certainly help to introduce yet more people to this epic estate.
But it is the sweet wines that rock my boat and, alongside the stellar 2010 Château Suduiraut (£55, vinatis.co.uk), which is drinking perfectly now, we also looked at the “second label” Castelnau. I was delighted to hear that the fully mature 2013 vintage is alive and kicking in our market and so it is my featured wine this week.
The 2013 was a difficult vintage, but it was also a very good one You have both botrytis (noble rot) and also passerillage (dried grapes) notes in this heady sweetie and, alongside the juicy, honeyed, orange-blossom theme, there is neat acidity balancing the 148g/litre sugar. This is a thoroughly delicious wine and I am certain that this cheeky half bottle will make you fall for this property, too.
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)