Chateau Rieussec Sauternes 2011
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 84% Semillon, 12% Sauvignon, 4% Muscadelle
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This shows incredible freshness and power, with dried pineapples, mangoes and papayas. Full body, medium-sweet with electrifying acidity. Vibrates your palate. Barrel sample still.
Barrel Sample: 96-97 Points -
Wine Spectator
Intense, with ginger, yellow apple chutney, dried pineapple and papaya flavors coursing through a finish that brims with singed almond and lemon chiffon flavors. This retains a touch of youthful rawness, featuring a bitter orange note that’s yet to be absorbed. No need to rush. Best from 2018 through 2040.
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Wine Enthusiast
Layers of complex botrytis give this wine an immensely aromatic character. It is sumptuous and generous, ripe and full-bodied. The essential acidity comes through the dry structure of botrytis and sweet honey. The fruit is only just beginning to show and the wine is obviously very young. Drink from 2022. Cellar Selection.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Rieussec, a blend of 95% Semillon, 2% Sauvignon Blanc and 3% Muscadelle is an absolute dream. There is wonderful precision and mineralité on the nose, the new oak more integrated than a few months ago. The palate is beautifully balanced with clear honey, brioche and pralines, a sensual Rieussec that is utterly charming, hints of nougat and almond lingering on the long finish. Gorgeous! Tasted April 2016.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Château Rieussec is always among the top producers of Sauternes. The 2011 vintage is magnificent. TASTING NOTES: This wine is opulent from start to finish. Its aromas and flavors of pineapple, apricot, and oak should provide excellent tasting when it has aged slow and long in the cellar. (Tasted: March 12, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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For several generations, Chateau Rieussec has been the leading name in Sauternes wines. As early as 1868, Charles Cocks remarked “Beyond any of the others, Rieussec produces wines very similar to Yquem wines”. Extensive pruning and the sparing use of natural fertilizer helps keep production low. The techniques remain traditional and specific to the Sauternes region. In terms of yields, the traditional reference is that a single vine should produce a bottle of wine. Here, though, a single vine produces about a glass of wine. Traditional fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats and can last as long as two months. The wine is aged for 16 to 26 months in oak barrels, produced mostly at Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) cooperage and half are renewed each year. Classified "Premier Grand Cru" in 1855, Rieussec has held its reputation and the quality of its wine, throughout the difficult years which Sauternes properties have been through. Albert Vuillier, who took over in 1971, has paid special attention to the development of the vineyard and pushed the standard of the wines produced to the highest level. This policy has paid dividends, since in recent years, Rieussec has received particular acclaim in numerous tastings of the "Premier Cru" of Sauternes. In 1985, wishing to consolidate Rieussec's position, Albert Vuillier entered into partnership with Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) to go even further in the elusive search for the perfect Sauternes.