Château de Fargues 1997

Characteristics and tasting tips for Château de Fargues 1997

Tasting

Appearance
The wine displays a beautiful, luminous golden-yellow hue.

Nose
Intense from the moment the bottle is opened, the nose reveals notes of honey and muscat. With aeration, it unveils great aromatic complexity, with fragrances of candied fruit and fruit jellies. The bouquet then evolves towards dried fruit, accompanied by a subtle toasty and spicy touch.

Palate
The attack is very round and supple, becoming creamy and ample on the palate. The rich, concentrated texture carries through to a long, flavourful finish that confirms the wine's complexity. Honey quickly gives way to a multitude of candied and dried fruits. The aromatic evolution is vast, with perfect balance and a development that seems endless.

Serving and cellaring
For optimal enjoyment, it is advisable to open the bottle a few hours before serving. Drink until around 2035.

Other characteristics
This sweet wine has a residual sugar content of 115 to 116 g/L.

A delicate Sauternes of subtle complexity

The estate
A medieval fortress founded in 1306 in Fargues, in the Gironde, Château de Fargues has belonged to the Lur Saluces family since 1472, embodying more than five centuries of exceptional heritage and continuity. Now run by Philippe de Lur Saluces, the estate covers 170 hectares, including 27 hectares of vines producing Sauternes. Sweet wine production only began in 1943, under the impetus of Bertrand de Lur Saluces. The clay-limestone and gravelly terroir of this Bordeaux region, combined with a microclimate conducive to botrytis, gives Château de Fargues its distinctive character.

The vineyard
Château de Fargues 1997 is a Sauternes wine from a 14.3750-hectare vineyard located in the heart of the appellation. The vines thrive on a clay-limestone and gravelly terroir, benefiting from a microclimate particularly favourable to the development of noble rot. Yields are exceptionally low, producing less than one glass of wine per vine, or around 8 hectolitres per hectare. This rigorous selection ensures that only perfectly botrytised grapes are retained.

The vintage
The 1997 growing season got off to an early start, but May was cool and rainy. Flowering stretched from 5 May to 15 June. A very stormy August was followed by a remarkable run of record temperatures that lasted until All Saints' Day. The end of the season, in September and October, proved superb, with winds blowing from the east and south-east. The dry, warm conditions allowed noble rot to develop slowly but steadily, helped by the morning mists. However, the warm August nights complicated the harvest by increasing the pressure from sour rot spread by fruit flies.

Winemaking and ageing
The harvest of Château de Fargues 1997 was carried out by hand in five successive pickings. The first picking took place from 15 to 19 September, yielding 15 barrels after five days of work. The following passes took place roughly every ten days until 4 November, the date of the first morning frosts. These five pickings made it possible to capture a remarkable diversity of botrytised and shrivelled berries, the hallmark of the vintage's complexity. Fermentation took place over three to five weeks in barrels with indigenous yeasts. The wine was vinified entirely in barrels that had previously held one or two wines. Ageing then continued for thirty months in barrels.

Grape varieties
Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.