To craft world-class wine, each stage of manufacturing calls for an obsessive consideration to element – and it’s simply so at Ch. d’Yquem. Within the newest instalment of our collection taking you behind the scenes in Bordeaux, we speak to those that guarantee each bottle of liquid gold is nothing lower than good
“We take dangers daily,” Vanessa Martin says to me. In case you didn’t know we have been standing in a vineyard, you would possibly suppose Martin was a fighter pilot, a firewoman or maybe a double agent. The 2 girls standing in entrance of me, Martin and her colleague Chantal Uldry, aren’t essentially the picture of risk-takers – however by their fingers have handed 1000’s of bottles of one of many world’s most treasured wines: Ch. d’Yquem. It won’t be life or demise, however this liquid is so prized that it could appear it.
The lone Sauternes or Barsac property to be declared a Premier Cru Supérieur in 1855, Ch. d’Yquem has a protracted historical past stretching again to the Center Ages. The wine crafted from this property, on the highest level in Sauternes, has been lauded for hundreds of years. It was savoured by the likes of Thomas Jefferson within the 1800s, whereas Jay-Z and Beyoncé visited late final yr. The property and its wines are the stuff of legend, sought out by wine lovers and collectors world wide.
Manufacturing of this candy nectar is painstaking – the vines cared for meticulously by the yr, and the fruit solely harvested if Mom Nature offers the proper circumstances for botrytis cinerea, aka “noble rot” to develop. If every thing is of their favour, with simply the correct amount of moisture and warmth on the proper time, this fungus will work its means into the bunches of grapes, piercing the pores and skin, concentrating the acid and sugar within the grapes, in addition to lending its personal distinctive spicy, marmalade aromas. Yquem’s workforce will move by the vines as much as six occasions, choosing particular person bunches and berries which might be prepared. Yields are miniscule, with roughly only one glass of wine made by every vine.
Chantal Uldry locations bottles of the valuable liquid on the road
As soon as the fruit has made its means into the vineyard, been pressed, fermented and aged in barrel, with solely the very best chosen for the ultimate mix, the wine have to be bottled and labelled – ready for its début on this planet. And that is the place Martin and Uldry are available, a part of the workforce who ensures that each bottle that leaves the premises is worthy of the Ch. d’Yquem title.
“We search perfection,” Martin tells me. She has been working on the property for 20 years, having began out within the vineyards earlier than shifting into the vineyard, having labored with the property’s longtime winemaker Sandrine Garbay on the vinification in addition to bottling and labelling, and now underneath the present Maître de Chai Toni El Khawand. Martin, like Uldry, is native – and wine is the area’s commerce. Her mother and father labored amongst the vines, so she adopted of their footsteps. However she didn’t adore it, she discovered the yearly cycle repetitive – doing the identical factor yr in, yr out – and requested to maneuver. “This job, it adjustments daily,” she tells me, of her function within the vineyard. “I see totally different folks daily; my work adjustments daily.”
Harvest underway at Ch. d’Yquem
Watching the workforce work is outstanding. Whereas a lot is mechanised right this moment, every thing is checked by a human member of the workforce. Martin takes a bottle off the road to examine a label, whips out a tape measure and tuts earlier than rigorously peeling the again label off and reapplying it one millimetre additional up the bottle. I watch one in all their colleagues lining up a ruler towards a double-magnum (all the massive codecs are nonetheless labelled by hand), re-applying a label 5 occasions to make sure it’s simply proper. At one other station, a girl delicately rolls every bottle in translucent tissue paper, wrapping each with the identical delicate contact, earlier than gently laying each in a case.
Uldry is about to retire later this yr, after 23 years at Ch. d’Yquem. Like Martin, she’s seen a lot change on the property, with its evolution underneath LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), who’ve invested significantly since they bought the property in 1999. She remembers how they used to clean the bottles by hand, and the equipment was a lot clunkier – whereas now it’s a very slick operation, with requirements increased than ever earlier than.
Labelling for the most recent launch of Ch. d’Yquem, the 2021, underway
There was a interval when the château did numerous reconditioning – outdated vintages could be despatched again to them to be checked, authenticated, topped up and re-corked, in addition to presumably re-labelled, earlier than being despatched again to a service provider or collector. As such, each Martin and Uldry have seen some terribly outdated bottles, and – fortunately for them – had the possibility to style a few of them. Martin tasted 1921, whereas Uldry’s expertise stretches again to the 1904 classic – wines that they battle to search out phrases to explain. I recall Sandrine Garbay telling me a couple of bottle from the 19th century that was in a cellar in Spain, however was unintentionally damaged, and the sommelier workforce urgently referred to as the château, cradling the bottle as they drove as much as Bordeaux, determined to save lots of the valuable wine.
“It’s a supply of pleasure that these bottles go everywhere in the world,” Uldry says, once I ask concerning the final vacation spot of the wine that passes by their fingers. They’re nicely conscious of the worth of the wine they’re dealing with, the influence of any breakage, and the way essential their function is. It’s, in spite of everything, the ultimate step for these bottles earlier than they depart the property, heading out into the world as ambassadors for the Yquem legacy. And lots of the bottles, if not most, of the 2021 classic (which has simply been launched) will outlive people who made it. As Martin says, their work isn’t about right this moment – however tomorrow: “We’re leaving it for the generations that observe.”
Discover all present listings of Ch. d’Yquem or learn extra about Bordeaux
– Written by Sophie Thorpe
