Sauternes Wine Offers

About Sauternes Wines

Sauternes AOC is a village about 40km south of Bordeaux, near the town of Langon, which produces exclusively sweet white dessert wines. Its location, far south in the Bordeaux region, nestled in southernly Graves, enjoys a unique microclimate allowing development of botrytis or 'noble rot' on the grapes. The cold Ciron river meets the warmer Garonne generating morning mists that can travel over the relatively flat land which promotes perfect conditions for botrytis, a type of fungus, to grow. This fungus penetrates the grape skin, leaving tiny holes for water to evaporate from the grape, concentrating sugars, acids and flavours. It can also modify the flavours in the grape and generate its own unique flavours, creating wines with honey, apricot, citrus zest, ginger and dried fruit.

Sauternes wines can only be sweet and have to be made from Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes, with a little Muscadelle. There are strict regulations controlling the production of Sauternes, from average yield to the ‘must weight’, which has to reach 221g/lt – this means intensely ripe, almost shrivelled grapes, which have to be picked individually, once the noble rot has done its job. These wines are expensive, not just due to the intense manual labour, but also because of their vinification process and the fact that most are vinified and then aged in oak for over a year, thus adding to the cost structure. There is also a great risk factor – grapes could be left on the vines, which either do not become contaminated with Noble Rot, or simply turn rotten.

In recent years, Sauternes has been struggling due to a lack of demand for their sweet wines. They have fallen out of fashion and even for those who drink them, they are only really got out for Christmas. As a result, many producers have started making dry wines to supplement their income, sold under Bordeaux AOC labelling.