▴ Château d’Yquem 2023
Château d’Yquem 2023
There are moments you don’t forget. Wines you don’t forget. Wines which are, and will always be, legends. Yquem 2023 is such a wine. I tasted it after a long day at Wine Paris. It stopped me in my tracks, to the point that I decided not to taste any other wines after it. I wanted to savour it for as long as I could. After the tightrope tension of the 2021, the rich sumptuousness of the 2022, comes the 2023, completing a great trio, but for me the greatest of all.
The word that came to mind when I tasted it was “complete”. It is a vinous masterpiece. Though it’s one of the world’s greatest sweet wines, it doesn’t taste sweet. The bouquet is pure and intense, mesmerising, with notes of candied fruit, beeswax, quite exotic. On the palate, there is compelling intensity with ginger, lychees, fresh pineapple, apricots and mandarins. Everything is in balance, sweetness, acidity and a touch of delicious bitterness. It is, simply, complete, and as close to perfection as I can imagine a wine can be.
A masterpiece.
Review February 2026, SK