Suduiraut 2022

Honeyed orange, caramelized citrus, flowers, spice, and buttery nuances all emerge from the 2022 Château Suduiraut, a decadent Suduiraut that has a vibrant sense of freshness, perfect balance, and a gorgeous finish. It's a brilliant, opulent Sauternes that's just about impossible to resist yet should evolve for decades if well stored.

So many aromas of dried apricots, turmeric, pine nuts and botrytis. Full-bodied with 190 grams of sugar and incredible length and richness. The salted caramel, light nuts and dried fruit go on for minutes. 100% semillon. A great sweet wine. Drinkable already but will age for ages. Better in three or four years but already gorgeous.

The 2022 Suduiraut conveys a sense of sophistication on the nose, very well defined and a little oakier, but there is complexity. The palate is wonderful, with superb delineation, pure botrytised fruit, gentle grip and genuine mineralité on the finish. This might well constitute the best Sauternes that you can buy in 2022. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

The 2022 Suduiraut is elegant, gracious and lifted, as the wines here typically are these days. Apricot, cinnamon, dried flowers, mint and orange peel all grace this wonderfully airy, understated Sauternes. Most importantly, the 2022 is a wine of exquisite balance. The 190 grams of residual sugar is quite a bit higher than the norm of 140-150, but that is not particularly evident. This has come together very nicely since I tasted it en primeur. While it might not reach the highs of the most exceptional years, it certainly comes close.

The 2022 Suduiraut, 100% Semillon with 190 g/l residual sugar, is pale to medium lemon-straw in color. The nose is not at all shy, bounding from the glass with exuberant notes of peach preserves, orange marmalade, lime blossoms, and candied ginger, giving way to suggestions of spice cake and honeycomb with a waft of toasted almonds. The big, rich, full-on decadent palate delivers profound stone and tropical fruit layers with compelling tension and texture, finishing very long and hedonically alluring.

The 2022 Suduiraut reveals a deep, complex bouquet of ripe orchard fruits, caramel, spices and mango. Medium to full-bodied, enveloping and mouth-coating, it’s long and fleshy with great depth at the core and a long, mineral, orchard fruits-inflected finish. Entirely crafted from Sémillon and matured for 18 months in barrels (70% were new barrels), this is a classic in the making and a superb Sauternes. This has 190 grams per liter of residual sugar.

Amber in colour, with tropical fruits of passion fruit and mango on the opening beats, clear depth of flavour and contrast provided by orange peel and aniseed bitterness, low acidity. Luscious, silky, powerful, enjoyable. Pierre MontŽgut technical director, 7hl/h yields, 70% new barrels 30% from barrels of one vintage.