Producers · Sauternes, Bordeaux · MMXXVI
Château d'Yquem
The only estate the 1855 classification set above all others. A wine made berry by berry, in the years the rot allows — and refused in the years it does not. The 2006 rests here, in bond.
The producer
One glass per vine.
A wine made by a fungus, a fog, and a refusal to hurry.
Château d'Yquem stands alone — literally, in the 1855 classification, where it holds a rank shared with no other estate: Premier Cru Supérieur. On its hill in Sauternes, morning mists off the rivers invite Botrytis cinerea — noble rot — to concentrate Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc into something no press or cellar trick can imitate.
The method is closer to harvest as archaeology. Pickers pass through the vineyard again and again — sometimes many times across weeks — taking only the berries the rot has perfected that day. The yield is famously described as one glass of wine per vine. And in years when the rot does not come cleanly, Yquem simply is not made. The silence of a missing vintage is the estate's oldest signature.
For a collector, Yquem is the purest case in Bordeaux of the producer's patience creating the asset — and of custody deciding whether it survives. A wine built to outlive its buyer deserves keeping that assumes the same.
The discipline
- The estate
- On the highest hill in Sauternes, near Bordeaux, with around 100–113 hectares under vine. Its morning mists — rolling off the Ciron and Garonne rivers each autumn — invite the noble rot that defines the wine.
- 1855
- Classified Premier Cru Supérieur — a rank held by no other estate in Bordeaux, above the First Growths themselves.
- The wine
- Roughly 75–80% Sémillon and 20–25% Sauvignon Blanc, concentrated by Botrytis cinerea. Pickers make many passes through the vineyard — often up to ten or twelve — selecting only botrytised berries. Yields fall to around one glass of wine per vine.
- The refusal
- In years when the rot does not arrive cleanly, the entire crop is declassified and no Yquem is declared at all — as in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992 and, most recently, 2012. The missing years are part of what the released years are worth.
- Ownership
- Held by the Lur-Saluces family from 1785 for more than two centuries; LVMH began buying shares in 1996 and took majority ownership in 1999, with Count Alexandre de Lur-Saluces staying on until 2004, when Pierre Lurton — also of Château Cheval Blanc — took over. The estate began organic conversion in 2019, with 2022 its first certified organic vintage.
- The making
- The grand vin is aged around 30 months in 100% new French oak, with a target of about 13.5% ABV and 120–150 g/L of residual sugar; roughly 65,000 bottles are made in a declared year. Capable of fifty years and more in bottle — which is why custody matters here more than almost anywhere.
- "Y" (Ygrec)
- Since 1959 the estate has also made a dry white wine, "Y" — pronounced "ee-grek" — from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon picked earlier for freshness. A different register entirely from the botrytised grand vin.
Drawn from the accounts of Wine Cellar Insider, The Wine Independent, Decanter and the estate's own records. The estate: yquem.fr. Record updated .
The years that were refused.
What Yquem declines to release is part of what it is.
Most estates make their flagship every year and let the market grade the results. Yquem inverts this: the estate grades the year first, and the market only ever sees what passed. Whole vintages have been declared unworthy and never bottled. It is the same discipline this cellar recognises in Giacosa's red label and in Vega Sicilia's calendar — the producer doing the collector's sorting in advance — carried to its furthest point.
The practical consequence: every bottle of Yquem that exists has already been judged once, severely, by the only judge who could refuse to release it. What remains to be judged is its keeping. Fill level, colour, capsule, custody — the questions this cellar asks of every bottle matter doubly for a wine expected to live half a century or more.
Legendary vintages
The years the rot arrived.
Yquem is not made every year. These are the ones that justify the wait.
The comet vintage
Made in the year of the Great Comet, and still, two centuries on, spoken of as one of the finest wines ever produced. A single bottle sold at auction in 2011 for £75,000 — a record for a white wine.
Château d'Yquem
The vintage that made the estate's international name — bought by the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, and a reference point for botrytised wine ever since.
Château d'Yquem
The great pre-war Yquem, extraordinarily rich and still alive a century later. For much of the twentieth century, the benchmark against which every other vintage was measured.
Château d'Yquem
One hundred points from both Robert Parker and Wine Spectator — the most celebrated Yquem of the modern era, and the wine that defined what the estate could do in a great year.
Château d'Yquem
Built on finesse rather than sheer weight — the vintage most often cited when tasters want to explain the difference between richness and greatness.
Château d'Yquem
A hundred points from Parker: the most complete Yquem of its generation, with botrytis, concentration and acidity in near-perfect proportion. Still barely begun.
Château d'Yquem
Not the easiest year, and that is the point. A warm, dry summer gave way to a cold, damp August and unwanted rot; the crop was saved by picking each plot at exactly its moment. Parker found a wine built on finesse and elegance "à la 1988," with fifty years and more ahead of it. The estate's method, tested and proved.
Yquem 2006, 0.75L →In years when the rot does not arrive cleanly, no Yquem is declared at all — as in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992 and, most recently, 2012. The missing years are part of what the released years are worth. Years marked in gold are recorded in this cellar.
In the archive
The bottles, recorded.
Held in professional bond · custody documented · no public prices.
What is shown is the smaller part. Interest in a wine or vintage not recorded here can be left by private request.
Questions
What is Château d'Yquem?
The most famous sweet wine in the world, from Sauternes in Bordeaux — the only estate ranked Premier Cru Supérieur in the 1855 classification. Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc concentrated by noble rot, picked berry by berry across repeated passes through the vineyard, in yields so low the estate speaks of a single glass per vine.
Why does Yquem skip some vintages?
Because noble rot cannot be scheduled. In years when the botrytis does not arrive cleanly, the estate declares no Yquem at all rather than release a lesser wine — a discipline it has honoured for centuries. The missing years are part of what the existing years are worth.
How long can Château d'Yquem age?
Longer than almost anything else in wine. Its balance of concentration, sugar and acidity lets well-kept bottles evolve for many decades — often generations — which is why condition and custody matter more for Yquem than for nearly any other wine, and why this cellar keeps it in professional bond.
What is "Y" (Ygrec)?
Since 1959 Yquem has also made a dry white wine called "Y" — pronounced "ee-grek" — from the same Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc, but picked earlier, before noble rot, for freshness rather than sweetness. It is a wholly different wine from the botrytised grand vin, and a rare glimpse of what the estate's fruit can do in a dry register.
Which Yquem does The Empty Drops hold, and can I buy it?
The recorded part of the cellar includes the 2006 vintage, held in bonded storage with documented custody. The 2006 has been released and is handled through CruTrade, where condition and custody are documented; privately held bottles can be enquired about directly.