Which multiplies the opportunities to eat

Has the sleeping beauty found her charming prince More great white wine of the world, only first thought higher classified in 1855, Château - Yquem was asleep on his elitist pedestal. The myth of Sauternes suffered trauma first in 1999, when the giant of the LVMH luxury, taking advantage of the difficulties of a part of the family, put an end to the two centuries of absolute rule of the Lur Saluzzo on the 125 hectares of vineyards that dominate the South of the Gironde. To appease the spirits, count Alexandre de Lur Saluzzo retained the upper hand on the noble fortified castle from the 15th and 17th centuries until 2004.

Bernard Arnault had been able to take his time to conquer his new jewel, but it raised new questions by placing at the head of Yquem a specialist quadragénaire of red wines. If Pierre Lurton belongs to a great tradition of wine-growers, did most of his career at Saint-Emilion. Of course, its success at Cheval-Blanc, premier cru co-ownership of Brother Albert and Bernard Arnault, gave him some credit. But Sauternes is a world apart in Bordeaux, and Yquem a world apart in Sauternes.

The challenge of the new master of the vineyard was double: maintain the exceptional quality of a wine admired around the world while modernizing its production, its image and its dissemination, so that the Yquem undertaking is only the means of subsistence of a family simply to sell bottles to balance its budget. Alexandre de Lur Saluzzo had homework to provide equipment and worthy of his incomparable nectar chais Golden myth. But he was working with fourteen dealers and sold as part of annual production. Which also allowed LVMH to find in the hundreds of thousands of bottles from cellars of harvest of the last two decades.

However, if Yquem is not one wine like any other and it can keep its flavour for more than a century, it is first an instrument is pleased to be drunk. Pierre Lurton is therefore attached to restart the machine without undermine what makes it an icon. This was to "move from the medieval era to the modern era" in making the product more accessible.

First revolution: double the number of dealers with which the Castle works, making it less dependent on ownership of a limited circle less able to absorb large volumes in good financial condition. Second innovation: sell the last available harvest, 1999, at a price until then unusual. As Yquem is the object of meticulous care, its grain to grain harvesting requires more pickers that elsewhere and that the development of a sublime wine means to select the best barrels, its price is never cheap. But by selling vintage 1999 to trading at 75 euros, or 40 less than previously, Pierre Lurton opened large Windows. The success was undeniable, to not only meet the worshippers of the myth, unconditional buyers, but also to appeal to new categories of fans who were until then unaffordable.

The beginning of the 2000s, euphoric period in Bordeaux, resulting in a high inflation of the price, the new boss undertook another revolution by selling a vintage en primeur on a large scale, which allows to get a haircut on the expected price of the market in its bottle, three years later. Proposed to 150 euros, bottles of 2003 prompted a great excitement despite the handicap of the sauternes, whose quality is more difficult to discern at the young age where the firsts are offered. 2005 Frontlist, Pierre Lurton dared ask for 450 euros, at the level of the tenors of the Médoc. But at this price, demand was much more limited. Approach will therefore not systematically repeated each year.

Harvest 2006, one of the earliest last 100 years, which has just completed with an unusual abundance for a difficult year, could wait several years to be put on the market, when the cru exhalera all his qualities. As one of the peculiarities of Yquem, exceptional in the great vintages, it be incomparably superior to the other in the most difficult years.

To accompany the revival of the cru, LVMH has given means to Yquem faster replant the ceps at end of breath, which allows to increase production. Provided that the weather, indispensable to the development of the famous fungus botrytis, which transforms the nectar cluster decay, is the appointment, the product thus vineyards now average 125.000 bottles per year, against 95,000 previously. The old Castle has also been modernized thoroughly to make it a great public relations tool. Despite his ability to aging, which urged its former leaders to promote the interests of the drink after decades of conservation, even deter some enthusiasts, Pierre Lurton attaches to the sweetness of the wine in his youth or teenager.

Unlike a strongly established legend, the sauternes is not simply an ideal dessert wine to accompany desserts. This outdated image can be more easily overcome that plays on the diversity of the vintages. Each according to its age and its wealth, can also be wonder accompany white meats, fish, or cheese. Which multiplies the opportunities to eat.

Long confined to a circle of admirers and collectors elitist in Europe and the United States, Château - Yquem also part in the conquest of new markets in Latin America and Asia Russia. Once wine of choice for the tsars, the King of the sauternes is no shortage of strengths in the eyes of the new Russian millionaires who seek closer adverse past. But it is especially Asia offers opportunities. Yquem has aromatic richness and complexity out of hand. He was married so much better than red wines with flavors subtle and spicy in the far East. Already appreciated to the Japan, there all the assets to take advantage of the craze shuttering Chinese wine and broaden the circle of his fans.