A vintage taste of summers past: The £55,000 bottle of Sauternes
Saturday, 11 February 2006
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The sauternes of the Château d'Yquem have always inspired strong feelings. Francois Mauriac, the French novelist and poet judged that: "Within each glass of Yquem burns the summers of the past."
So taken was he by the mahogany sweetness of the elixir that Thomas Jefferson, then American envoy to France, ordered 250 bottles. Proust, Dumas, Verne, even Hannibal Lecter have lavished praise on the qualities of the vineyard behind the "noble rot". With such a faultless pedigree, it is perhaps unsurprising that an American billionaire has now paid £55,000 for a 1787 vintage bottle of the white stuff this week, a snip at just £10,000 a glass.
The bottle has been transported to the anonymous new owner's cellar aboard his private jet where it may or may not be drunk. The man who sold it and escorted it to the US, Stephen Williams of the Antique Wine Company, believes it will make it to the glass. "If he has got people around the table. If they are important to him, enthusiastic about wine, he will find it difficult to resist the temptation," he said.
The dinner party, should it indeed happen, will provide a lavish footnote in the wine's story, a saga that spans three tumultuous centuries from the French Revolution, through two world wars, to the present day. The medieval château which begat the vineyard is modelled on a typical English castle, remaining under the dominion of the British crown until the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453.
At the time the grapes for the record-breaking bottle were harvested, the family that is now synonymous with the Yquem had just taken charge. The marriage of Josephine de Sauvage d'Yquem to Louis-Amédéé de Lur-Saluces was not only one of the grandest unions in the French aristocracy, but was to establish a wine-making dynasty lasting 200 years. But it was nearly not to be. Louis Amédéé died in 1786 in a riding accident, the inheritance only just secured with the birth of his first son, Antoine-Marie, in the same year.
The following summer, estate workers began the task of harvesting the 113 hectares under vine, primarily of sémillon varieties with the rest dedicated to sauvignon blanc. Pressed several times to a form a highly concentrated juice, the grapes are ready for the fermentation process to begin. Because of its exceedingly rich nature, the process can last up to six weeks before it is transferred to an oak barrel and racked every three months, the process that separates the wine from the lees. In 1791, the year that the National Assembly was convened only to collapse 12 months later amid the chaos of the Revolution, the wine was bottled.
But these were to prove traumatic times for the Lur-Saluces. Antoine-Marie was taken prisoner during a military foray into Russia. His mother Josephine, who remained in charge during his absence, was herself to be imprisoned twice for speaking out against the Revolution's excesses. It was not until the turn of the century, and stability under Napoleon, that the wine is thought to have been first sold, most likely to a neighbouring aristocrat. By 1847, the estate began to employ the principle of "noble rot", supposedly following the late return of the eldest son from Russia and the discovery that his crop had rotted on the vine.
This bottle did not surface again until the 20th century, in the hands of one of France's most famous wine merchants, Raymond Beaudouin. As dealer to some of the most celebrated restaurants in Europe between the wars, M. Beaudouin's association with the bottle is central to the establishment of its provenance.
After his death in 1953, the bottle returned to the château where it was bought by another dealer, Didier Segon. During this time, it was recorked twice, once in 1980 by a retired member of staff at Yquem. A new label was attached, probably priming it for sale in the then- booming market among Japanese collectors.
It was recorked again in 1994. A new ticket was affixed by the head of the wine warehouse and an authenticity ticket signed by the then Count verifying that "as a matter of course, the wine in this bottle was under no circumstances tasted".
In 2000, the Lur Saluces were bought out by France's richest man Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury goods brand LVMH. The sale split the wine-making dynasty, with some family members reluctant to sell their shares. Along with the world-famous estate, LVMH acquired the bottle. But, according to Mr Williams, nothing is certain in the world of these exceptional vintages except one thing. With an ever-dwindling supply of these ancient vintages, prices are likely to rise and rise.
The news from 1787
By Geneviève Roberts
* Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette ruled France in 1787 but revolution would shortly sweep a country crippled financially by the American War of Independence. The French court was decadent, and resentment grew amid the poverty of most of Paris.
* Voltaire, the writer and philosopher, (François-Marie Arouet), right, was living in Ferney, on the Swiss-French border. He was politically influential in the area, fighting for worker's rights. He died in 1788.
* In Britain, where James III was king, 11 ships left Portsmouth with convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia. Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp established the Society to Abolish Slave Trade, backed by Josiah Wedgwood.
* Prussian troops entered the Netherlands, and in America, delegates wrote a new constitution for the US. Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey became the first three American states.
