Château de Fargues 2005

This is so creamy, almost milky in feel, with toasted coconut and cashew notes giving way to sweet peach, apricot and glazed pear flavors that glide along, while ginger, green tea, lychee and kumquat flavors extend through the finish. Shows terrific range and definition. Feels like it's just starting to open, and is in no rush. Drink now through 2035. 2,665 cases made.

The nose is sumptuous yet still conspicuously oaky, though the oak doesn’t suppress the lovely apricot fruit. Indeed, it lends aromatic elegance. Very sweet and intense on the palate, this is creamy and concentrated, with excellent purity of fruit, but a lively acidity that gives the wine its finesse. Well balanced.

For the moment there is quite a lot of sulphur on the nose, making it difficult to perceive the inherent character. Plenty of sweetness and a bit of pear juice, but it’s not the most intense.

Vanilla bean, tropical fruit, orange marmalade, peach and apricots are coated with honey on the nose. Silky, lush, rich, sweet, fresh, round and most importantly, delicious, the wine has refreshing acidity and the perfect level of tropical sweetness.

Fresh, pale yellow. Intense, heady botrytis, clear acetone note, yellow fruits, delicate hint of honey. Juicy, fresh palate, fine verve, juicy, nicely integrated outer layer of richness, great length, combining on the one hand the drive of a Barsac and the sweetness of a Sauternes, perhaps for that very reason a typical Fargues.

Fresh, pale yellow. Intense, heady botrytis, clear acetone note, yellow fruits, a fine touch of honey. Juicy, fresh palate, fine nerve, juicy with a lovely, integrated outer layer of fat. Shows great length and essentially combines two possible appellations: on the one hand the race of a Barsac, the sweetness of a Sauternes, and perhaps it is precisely these two elements that make it a typical Fargues! (18/20). 07: Smells like a ripe Yquem. Lots of vanilla cream, raciness, and extremely long.

Dense, deep, complex bouquet with good botrytis, vanilla, ripe grapefruit. Dense, multi-layered, powerful, velvety palate with a tight structure, pronounced sweetness and good acidity. Very long, full finish. 19/20 2015 - 2050

A dry year, with a 40% water deficit between the 2004 harvest and the 2005 vintage, giving very different aromatics from most in this vertical. Still replete with the flavours and aromatics of a young wine, you find juicy fresh apricots, pineapple, citrus, lemon curd, ginger, spiced nuts. Tasted both at the estate and within the same week also in Singapore at a Sauternes brunch held at 67 Pall Mall, both times delivering an accomplished mix of power and precision. During the winemaking, they included a few grapes that were shrivelled from the heat alongside those affected by noble rot, to ensure there was enough bitterness in the aromatic palate, and this is gourmet, luxurious, impressive. Harvest September 27 through to October 27, an exact month. François Amirault winemaker.

The 2005 de Fargues is medium to deep straw-gold in color. It rolls out with ready-to-go notes of honey toast, peach preserves, pineapple paste, and orange marmalade with touches of walnut cake and burnt sugar. Rich and unctuous, the palate has a lively line to lift the dense, spicy fruit to a long finish.

A great Sauternes. Superb aromatic richness, a silky, full palate, very long, with remarkable, well-managed botrytis.

Its nose is fine, subtle, complex, airy and powerful all at once, standing up to a melting, meticulously textured palate where silky touch evolves on the finish into sophisticated aromas and crystalline moments. Impossible to spit! This wine was the star of the Outsiders fair in Paris, the most coveted at the pop-up shop. Surprising when you know the commercial woes of Sauternais. It seems the price fades in the face of the powerful revelation of this gustatory emotion.

87-89 Barrel sample. Almonds, some spice and dryness are the dominant impressions of this wine. It is concentrated, very rich with layers of dense botrytis and flavors of oak and sweet fruit. A success for this lesser-known property.