1941 Château d'Yquem

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 91 points

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  6/5/2015 - RayOB wrote: 92 Points

  Drank in Bordeaux
  Incredible to try this bottle from the war years. Very dark brown but once opened the nose was definitely Yquem. Slight maderisation and it only lasted about 20 mins opened before fading. A real treat.

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  1/18/2013 - noofie2 wrote: 91 Points

  Had after dinner with Dennis, Amanda, Michael, Joan and Katherine at Artisan Bistro. A real treat to drink this wine made and bottled in Sauternes during WWII. It had been re-corked at Chateau Yquem ( known from the cork) at some point in time before I acquired it. Fill level was good at mid shoulder and the color was a medium gold - light brown, not dark brown....you could still see through the wine in a moderate light. A moderate sweetness was still there, well balanced with a perfect acidity level. A delicate fruit/botrytis nose. Some slight maderization in the taste but not at all offensive, actually quite appealing. Great complexity in the taste including most notably a powerful and most pleasant orange peel flavor, coupled with apricot and botrytis. A very small amount of light colored very fine sandy sediment in the last glass. Considering the longevity, still great quality, origins, pedigree and history associated with this wine, this capped off our evening with a highly memorable wine and history appreciation experience. Awesome!!!

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  8/16/2012 - noofie2 wrote: 90 Points

  With dinner at the Independent restaurant in Placerville, California with winemaker Charles Mitchell and his daughter, together with Dan Guilhot, Dr. Dave Webb, Joe Fitzpatrick and myself. The dinner was planned around this wine for obvious reasons....Charles and I were born a month apart in 1941 (me in London during WW2, a year after the Blitz bombing, and he somewhere in the US) and this was a special dinner to celebrate our birthdays and longevities. This wine was actually made a few hundred miles south of London in Bordeaux during the Nazi occupation. After 60 years, the level was mid shoulder and the wine itself was a murky brownish gold color, where you could just manage to see through the bottle. A wine this old gets extra points for historical reasons and just surviving more than 60 years and still being a treat to drink, which this was. The bottle had a short foil and a genuine Chateau Yquem cork from being rebottled at some point at the winery or otherwise by Yquem staff. The taste was moderately sweet and nutty...the nuttiness associated primarily with a certain degree of oxidation. There were plenty of other flavors deriving from the wine's age that were pleasant but unlike the descriptors typically used on younger wines. Many of those flavors and bouquets are to be found in subterranean wine cellars. Earthy, an old Botrytis cinerea mustiness (old noble rot), apricots, orange peel, dry caramel, burnt nuts, madeira and raisans. A little like a very old Tokaj Essencia. Gone were the younger honey flavors. Nonetheless an great experience.

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