Chateau D'Yquem 2023

The bouquet is at once pure and concentrated, bursting with notes of roasted rhubarb, lilac blossom and citrus fruit, peppered with a dash of cedar and beeswax. The 2023 vintage is velvety smooth and expansive on the palate, with an almond-laced texture which further elevates its sense of liveliness and power. The full-bodied structure is woven through with notes of apricot, dark plum and mandarin orange marmalade, building up to a long, indulgent finish. 2023 Château d’Yquem epitomizes the miraculous power of noble rot, producing a wine of rare intensity which will gradually reveal its full grandeur over the coming years and decades.

Critcal Acclaim

100 James Suckling 

Perfect aromas carry through to every milliliter of this wine, showing intense orange peel, honey, butterscotch, saffron, smoke and peat, with hints of coffee and dried apples. Full-bodied but weightless and silky, with an excellent balance of fruit, sweetness and spices. Some peanut brittle, dried oranges and lemons at the end. I can’t get over how wonderful this is now, but it can age forever.

100 Wine Advocate

With 153 grams per liter of residual sugar - placing it among the 10 most concentrated vintages in the château’s history - the 2023 d'Yquem ranks among the finest wines bottled here under Lorenzo Pasquini’s direction. It unfurls from the glass with a complex, vibrant and remarkably pure bouquet of pineapple, guava, mango, confit citrus, beeswax and spices. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it combines formidable depth with perfectly judged control, built around a fleshy core of fruit, framed by lively acidity and a crystalline texture and culminating in an endless, refined and ethereal finish. Yquem’s natural power is here masterfully harnessed by the vintage’s freshness and tension, revealing an aesthetic of precision and vibrancy encountered only in the estate’s greatest years - made all the more remarkable by the fact that the château now achieves even higher levels of concentration than a decade ago, without any perceptible increase in sweetness on the palate. 

99 Vinous

The nose is so seductive that it should come with a warning sticker. Pure and mellow, it offers beguiling scents of wild honey, quince jelly, almond shavings and that signature hint of saffron destined to accentuate with age. It displays wonderful definition, though it does not have the aromatic drama of the previous vintage. The palate has exquisite balance and poise that belies the depth of this Yquem, though it is less exuberant, less ostentatious than the 2022. It is really the umami sensation that defines the 2023, how it caresses, almost soothes the grateful taste buds, vanilla and flecks of white chocolate lingering on the aftertaste. This will probably drink a little sooner than the 2022. If the 2023 does have a fault, it’s that it is so flattering in its flush of youth that it will be difficult to resist. Sublime.