Ch. Suduiraut
Premier Cru Classe (half bottle)
Sauternes
2011

The producer

Located in the commune of Preignac, just south of d’Yquem, Suduiraut is a large, beautiful estate with parkland, fields and forest. Less than half (90 hectares) is devoted to vineyards, which are planted to 89% Semillon and 11% Sauvignon Blanc grown mostly on sandy gravel.

Classified as 1er Cru Classe, Suduiraut has been owned by AXA Millesimes (which also owns Chateaux Pichon Longueville Baron in Pauillac) since 1992. The grapes are fermented in stainless steel tanks and then matures in (one third) new oak barrels for 24 months.

Suduiraut is a rich, intense, luscious and very long ageing Sauternes.

The wine

Grapes for Suduiraut is sourced from the estate’s finest vineyards just south of d’Yquem, in the village of Preignac. Vines are on average 45 years old. The blend varies with vintage conditions, but the Semillon content is often as high as 100%.

Fermentation takes place in barrels – with 35-70% new oak – and is followed by ageing for 16-24 months. Suduiraut is a rich, intense, luscious, and very long ageing Sauternes, with complex tropical, candied fruit and spice aromatics, a velvety and graceful texture, and a long spicy finish.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.