Sauternes is more versatile than you might think!
Adventures Of A Black Belt Sommelier
Why I believe Sauternes should be part of your enjoyment of wine
I would argue that Sotern may be the most underappreciated wine region in the world. Well it's both underappreciated and enormously appreciated by people that understand how great it can be. The wines from Sotern can be. Just so you know Sotern is in the southern part of Wardau and the predominant grape is Simeon. The grapes are affected by a noble rot called botritus in area or parrot to an obla that shrivels the grapes and concentrates the flavors and results in really extraordinary sweet white wines. The thing about Sotern is that the best Soterns. There's a sub-region, a sub-AOC called Bar Sack, also great wines, similar wines come from. And the thing about the wines of Sotern, number one, the finest wine, the finest Chateau in Sotern, Chateau de Chellm, you could argue is the greatest wine in the world. In the 1855 Bordeaux classification, when the four red bordeaux were designated as first growths, remember at that time there were only four, Mutong was elevated to a first growth in 1973. Chateau de Chellm was actually designated a first great growth. So it was above the first growths, reds from Bordeaux, from the Medoch. Also, if you ask what's the greatest red wine in the world, there'd be a lot of answers. If you ask what's the greatest dry white wine in the world, there would be a lot of answers. What's the greatest Merlot, what's the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon? What's the greatest Sauvignon Blanc? There's lots of answers to those questions. When you ask, what's the greatest sweet white wine in the world? Or just what's the greatest sweet wine in the world? There are answers. There's Broken Baron Alslesa, there's Vincanto, there's Australian sweet wine, great ports, there's port. There's wines from Cyprus and South Africa that are considered among the greatest ones. But clearly, the number one wine, when you mention sweet wine, the number one wine is Chateau de Chellm. And not only is it the greatest wine in the world, but in a great vintage, it can age almost forever. I've tasted a lot of vintage as a Chateau de Chellm. Been lucky. I've tasted the 21, which is mind-boggling because it looks like motor oil, but then you tasted it and it's magnificent. I've tasted the 2001 a few times, which is considered the greatest vintage ever for Chateau de Chellm. Several wine critics say that it's a wine that you can drink more than 100 years old. So through the next century, the 59, the 67, all these great vintages. There's never been a vintage that disappointed, even the lesser vintages are special. So it's the standard barre for sotermed, first sweet wines of sotermed. But it's not the only, it's not the only great wine. There are the next level wines, such as Chateau Sutero, Chateau Clemads, and others, that are just about as good and they don't cost an enormous amount of money. Chateau de Chellm does. Chateau de Chellm is expensive, and it's because it's worth it. But the less, the slightly lesser Chateaus aren't terribly expensive. Chateau Rieseck, famously the 2001 vintage was the wine spectrum, wine of the year in 2004. And it's still glorious today. But here's the other thing about sotermed. The turn is not just a sweet white wine. It is very versatile. It's very famously the perfect pairing for a mousse of foie gras or a torsion of foie gras. I personally don't think it's the best wine for a fresh, like saute fresh foie gras. But for a mousse of foie gras or torsion of foie gras. It is absolutely the best thing. It's the best wine, and it's a fabulous pairing. But it's also a great cheese course wine. It's fantastic with Roker as a cheese course. Maybe drizzle with some lavender honey, and then maybe an older Chateau sotermed with the cheese course. Or any stinky cheese, like the applause that I did a podcast on last week, cheeses like that, strong cheeses like a plus, haleggio, Robleshawn, most Jesus. It's great. But it's old. It's a really great dessert wine. A lot of people's service out there to come with a creme brulee. I don't think it's the best match for a creme brulee because it tastes too much the same. But what I like to start starting with for dessert is fresh peaches grilled and stuffed with mascarpone and then, again, drizzled with lavender honey. That is, you just cut the peach in half, remove the pit, grill it so it's caramel, really caramelized, filled with the whole where the pit was with a whisked mascarpone cheese and then drizzle it with lavender honey. Oh man, oh man, it's really special. So sotermed is not only incredible and ageless and special and everything else that it is, but it's also really versatile with food because it can be a great first course wine with foie gras. It can be a great cheese course wine, especially rofer is perfect or really any blue cheese. And then it can be a great dessert one too. So if you have, if you have a wine cellar, if you have a collection, if you're serious about wine and you enjoy wine and you enjoy food, I would really strongly urge you to consider including sotermed as part of your repertoire of wines because if you don't, you're really robbing yourself of some really, really extraordinary pleasure that these wines provide. And with some age, they're not just sweet, they're sweet and complex and decadent and magical, which is kind of what you want, right? So that's my, that's my ranch. I'm up on my soapbox. Heringing you about the pleasures of sotermed. I appreciate your listening and be on the lookout for some good, you know, good quality chateaus. Like once I mentioned Reusect, Cleman, Sutero, and by the way, Sutero is spelled S-U-D-U-I-R-A-U-T. Reusect is R-I-E-U-S-S-S-E-C and Cleman's a C-L-I-M-E-N-S. And boy, if you could find some, the O1 of any of those, that's really, you could really hit the jackpot, but the 2009s are great. And of course they don't really bottle, so turn except in finishes, they're going to be great. Thanks for tuning in. Stood ventures of a bite. Well, it's only a, I appreciate it. By the way, if you need a recipe for the torsion of flageau or for the caramelized peach dish, you can contact me here through the comments section. Thank you very much. [BLANK_AUDIO]