Dual 97s: The Icon that Topped Yquem

You must try this wine.

It doesnt matter whether you think of yourself as a connoisseur of sweet wines. If you consider yourself a wine lover with an appreciation for the worlds great terroirs and the art of winemaking, then you must try Domaine des Baumards 2017 Quarts de Chaume. Its that simple.

Consider this: Chteau dYquem in Sauternes is considered the worldwide standard-bearer for sweet wines AND for unflagging winemaking excellence. Well, the 2017 Quarts de Chaume outscored the 2017 Yquem in Decanter. In fact, its 97-point score made it the top sweet wine of the vintage, by Decanter as well as Wine & Spirits magazine.

Its no wonder that Decanter, in a long, rhapsodic 2023 article about Quarts de Chaume, called it criminally underrated and one of the worlds greatest sweet wines.

The 2017 is a wine of Edenic bounty, in the words of W&S, who couldnt help gushing like Proust with a buzz. A taste completely fills your head, tucking that bounty of fruit into every corner of your skull until it feels like your brain is cushioned in a cloud.

We have just 20 cases of half-bottles, and just about every member of our team is looking forward to cellaring some of this for themselves. We hope you join us.

Quarts de Chaume is the only Grand Cru in the Loire Valley, and it is tiny: It sits within the Coteaux du Layon appellation (in Anjou), and in it, 20 producers combine to make just 50,000 bottles of Quarts de Chaume per year. Compare that with Sauternes/Barsac, where 5 MILLION bottles are produced every year.

Domaine des Baumard is the biggest producer of Quarts de Chaume, but they have just six hectaresbarely 15 acresin this area known for geological chaos. The soils are a mixture of sandstone, schist, quartz, rhyolite, and spilite. Whats really important is the proximity to the Layon River, which supplies the morning mist that encourages the famed botrytis cinerea, or the Noble Rot crucial to Sauternes production.

Noble Rot is not required by the Quarts de Chaume AOP rules, and Florent Baumard, who took over from his father Jean in 1990, believes that botrytis can dominate a wine, thereby destroying any sense of terroir. Thats why he uses just 1/3 botrytis-affected grapes for his Quarts de Chaume, combining them with equal parts concentrated berries and simply ripe ones.

The Chenin Blanc grapes are picked in multiple tries, harvested by hand, with only the best bunches making it into the winery. The team uses small baskets as if they were harvesting peaches, and theyre left in a cold room before pressing so they dont oxidize. The low-pressure pressing, crucial to capture the quality of the fruit, can take six to 12 hours.

The different cuts of the pressings are fermented separately, and only blended after fermentation is complete. The wine then spends nine to 18 months on the lees in stainless steelno oak barrels to interfere with the flavors of the wine. The wines are bottled under Stelvin enclosures, a practice that Florent has followed since 2003and wishes he had adopted much earlier.

From a domaine with nearly 400 years of history behind it, born of a great terroir and a meticulous winemaking practice, this is one of the worlds greatest wines. Were thrilled to share it with you.

Light gold, with brassy tones. An explosion of aromas, from baked apple, toasted spice, ginger, fresh citrus blossoms, apricot jam, lemon curd, and lanolin. Texturally alluring, with a full body and flavors that unfold endlessly: captivating peach, tropical fruits, exotic spices and florals. This is a rich and decadent wine that flaunts its power with every sip, while the pointed acidity leaves the palate cleansedand will keep the wine fresh for decades. Drink now2050.

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