Bordeaux Wine Tour: Sauternes & Barsac

Sauternes and Barsac are the two most ancient regions of the left bank, predating the vineyards of the Médoc by many centuries. The Garonne no doubt contributes to some extent as it sweeps past the vineyards, but it is its tiny tributary the Ciron that perhaps makes the more significant contribution to Sauternes.

Late on in the year, as the cool, autumn waters of the Ciron flow towards the warmer Garonne mists develop, lingering over the vines at the break of day, only dissipating with the warmth of the new day’s sun.

This early-morning moisture engenders the development of mould on the grapes, activating dormant spores of Botrytis Cinerea, and provided the mists evaporate each day, drying out the vines and their fruit, the mould will tend towards Noble Rot, rather than the more destructive grey rot.

Noble Rot will desiccate the grapes one-by-one, concentrating the sugars as the water evaporates, without developing any off-putting, mouldy flavors, and in fact contributing an appealing flavor all of its own. Grey rot, which comes with persistent damp and rain, sees the fruit deteriorate into a useless, sodden, rotten mass that will taste, should anyone be foolish enough to vinify it, of rotten fruit. Noble Rot, aptly named, is king.

What is perhaps most remarkable about the region is the seeming inevitability of it all. Although there is debate over where the practice of fermenting botrytised grapes first arose - there are a number of contenders, some much more likely than Sauternes - here the process occurs quite reliably, more so than many other wine regions of the world where the conditions necessary for the development of botrytis only come along every so often.

There are some vintages where botrytis is notably absent and the régisseur and oenologists must wait for the sugar concentration to rise sufficiently through ripening without desiccation, but in most vintages at least some trace of Noble Rot may be detected, and in many it is prominent. Small wonder this has become the world’s most pre-eminent region for sweet wine.

Barsac, The Sauternes’s appellation allows for wines produced in five communes, namely Sauternes itself, together with Barsac, Bommes, Preignac and Fargues. As might perhaps be deduced from my statement above, Barsac is a little unusual, and it deserves particular attention. Although the commune, which is illustrated in the map to the right, is situated in the north-western corner of the Sauternes appellation, it also has an appellation all of its own, and its wines may be bottled as either Barsac or Sauternes. At first this seems curious, although when tasting and comparing the wines it is often apparent that those of Barsac tend to have a racier and fresher style than others of the region, and it does not seem so inappropriate to consider them apart. This difference may well reflect the terroir of the region; the soils of Barsac, although peppered with limestone, typically have a red, sandy, alluvial character which reflects the proximity of the Ciron and the Garonne, and this sets this commune apart from its neighbors.

Although as a result the wines may be lighter and racier, they are no less sincere than wines from the vineyards of the other communes just to the south-east, and indeed Barsac is home to some of the leading crus of the region, most notably Climens and Coutet, both of which have a long track record of turning out superlative wines.

The journey from Barsac to the rest of the Sauternes vineyards involves a very short walk to the south-east, crossing the Ciron as you do so. Although parts of the appellation on this side border the river, a larger part of it is set back from the Ciron, and also from the Garonne, and the soils (and the wines) have a different character as a result. Nevertheless, despite these differences, regulations for the two appellations of Sauternes and Barsac are essentially the same.

Both allow for only white varieties, namely the trio of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, and although some estates do utilize the latter a significant number of the top wines are made solely from the first two.

Before any further discussion centred around Sauternes it might be useful to look along the Garonne to take at least a brief look at some of the other appellations for sweet wines that lie along its banks. There are several of note, and perhaps the least known is Cérons, which lies just downstream of Barsac. It covers the wines of three communes, Cérons, Illats and Podensac, and appellation regulations demand a similar must weight to its more famous neighbor, although yields may be higher as the maximum rendement de base is 40 hl/ha. Across the river are a trio of perhaps more widely known appellations; Cadillac, which covers 21 communes, then Loupiac and finally Ste-Croix-du-Mont, the largest and perhaps the best known of the three.

The INAO word on yields and must weight are similar for all three, and rather similar to those for Sauternes. Nevertheless, the wines do not offer the same quality, although they can of course offer value for money. Surrounding the three latter appellations is the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, which accounts for wine from 37 communes along the right bank of the Garonne, which may be red as well as white, the latter being sweet rather than dry.

During the 20th Century Sauternes has seen more than its fair share of dilapidated chateaux and untended vineyards. Low yields are an inherent aspect of grape dehydration through Noble Rot, and low yields results in fewer bottles to sell; thus to commit to making Sauternes is a significant undertaking not to be regarded lightly. With a market in decline following the wars and depression that dominated the first half of the century, it is no surprise that so many of the estates lay untouched and seemingly unloved for decades.

Perhaps one of the more controversial techniques introduced in the Sauternes region has been cryo-extraction. It was at Chateau Rayne-Vigneau in the 1980s, under the direction of Jean Merlaut, that the concept of cryo-extraction was first put into use. In some respects it resembles the natural process for making ice wine, although here in Sauternes it is perhaps more a response to the climate and the condition of the grapes at harvest rather than a additional method of increasing the sugar content (although it certainly also has that effect).

Botrytis cinerea requires very specific conditions, and with a damp harvest there is a danger that the beautifully shriveled and sugar-rich berries will turn to grey rot, and that the quality will be reduced or even ruined altogether.

This was a particular problem with the 1982 harvest, and Jean Merlaut, together with Professors Chauvet and Sudraud from the University of Bordeaux and the newly installed regisseur Patrick Eymery (of Chateau Guiraud), agreed to some trials of freezing the berries in order to remove water, leaving only the rich, botrytised juice, thereby potentially eliminating the problem of a wet harvest and the swollen, water-logged grapes that result. Naturally, however, the process has its problems and also its detractors, who claim that concentration in this way, will only accentuate the flaws already present in the wine, a reasonable argument. Nevertheless, today it is a method accepted and utilized by many, not just Rayne-Vigneau.

Technologies and manipulations accepted, Sauternes remains the foremost region for sweet wine in the entire world. And as I have mentioned earlier in this guide, it also has an illustrious history. It is naturally impossible to ignore one very important facet of that history - the classification of Sauternes.

Sauternes - The 1855 Classification

Notable Chateaux

Prem. Cru Supérieur, 1855

Ch. d’Yquem

Premiers Crus, 1855

Ch. Climens
Ch. Coutet
Ch. Guiraud
Ch. Lafaurie-Peyraguey
Ch. de Rayne-Vigneau
Ch. Rieussec
Ch. Sigalas-Rabaud
Ch. Suduiraut
Ch. La Tour-Blanche

Deuxièmes Crus, 1855

Ch. Doisy-Daëne
Ch. Doisy-Dubroca
Ch. Doisy-Védrines
Ch. Filhot
Ch. Lamothe
Ch. Lamothe-Guignard
Ch. Nairac

Unclassified

Ch. Bastor-Lamontagne
Ch. de Fargues
Ch. Gillette

For a full listing see my page on the Sauternes & Barsac classification

Quite what the wines of Sauternes were like before they began to feature sweetness and botrytis is perhaps impossible to know. There were vines here many centuries ago, long before accepted wisdom suggests the region commenced producing sweet wines which was probably around the 18th Century, although earlier would be possible, and some records suggest the date was even later.

Nevertheless, by the middle of the 19th Century Sauternes was most certainly sweet, as evinced by the writers of the time, and also by the handful of bottles from this era that occasionally surface, of which at least some (although almost certainly not all) must be genuine.

At this point in time the region was classified by the merchants of Bordeaux, along with the vineyards of the Médoc, in the run-up to the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1855. This classification, which was based on price at market and nothing more, produced a three-tier hierarchy which is still referred to today. At the head of the classification lies Yquem, this also dominates the landscape, lying at the heart of the appellation, sitting on a mound between the towns of Sauternes, Bommes and Fargues. Yquem, an unchallenged matriarch for the region, is followed by the premiers and deuxièmes crus.

Many of these estates have experienced low-points over the years, particularly as the region had to cope not only with all that was thrown at Bordeaux, but also with a shift in consumer tastes and lifestyles, away from those that favored or facilitated the consumption of gloriously sweet wine with any degree of frequency. Nevertheless many, such as Rieussec, Lafaurie-Peyraguey and Suduiraut, today turn out fabulous wines which sell at considerably lower prices than Yquem (although they are not cheap), and it is here that most Sauternes savants will look for their regular drinking.

At the lower end of the ranking there are also a number of estates well worth exploring. Look beyond the classed growth properties, for the cru bourgeois estates that one finds elsewhere in Bordeaux, however, and one sees that they are hard to find. Only one or two spring to mind.

This is not a region bestowed with chateaux turning out friendly, over-performing, inexpensive wines. The recent history of the region, and the expenses inevitably incurred with botrytis, which demands harvesting by several passes (or tries) through the vineyard and which drastically reduces yield (thus reducing the number of bottles you have to sell), preclude this. Nevertheless, there are a handful of unclassified properties turning out worthy wines, and I have included them here in my guide to the most notable chateaux.