Château d’Yquem 2023 – A Young Yquem in Full Voice

Château d’Yquem 2023 – A Young Yquem in Full Voice.

Few names in the world of wine carry the weight, history and emotional resonance of Château d’Yquem. The only Sauternes estate awarded Premier Cru Supérieur in the 1855 classification, Yquem stands apart not merely as a great sweet wine, but as a reference for longevity, balance and complexity. Each vintage is released only when it meets the estate’s uncompromising standards — a philosophy that has shaped its reputation for over four centuries.

The presentation of Château d’Yquem 2023 took place in fitting surroundings: Restaurant Vinkeles, housed in the historic Hotel the Dylan in Amsterdam. The setting provided an elegant, intimate backdrop for a tasting that explored both the newest release and Yquem’s dialogue with time.

Organized by De Bruijn in Wijnen, importer of Château d’Yquem in the Netherlands, the launch was presented by Toni El Khawand, the estate’s winemaker. The tasting was overseen by Laurent Richet, Master Sommelier (MS), while Jasper van Amerongen and his team at Vinkeles, added the perspective of a two-Michelin-starred dining room to the table.

The Estate: Château d’Yquem and the Art of Patience

Located on a hilltop in Sauternes, roughly fifty kilometers southeast of Bordeaux, Château d’Yquem is a place where history, landscape and discipline converge. The estate has been shaped over more than four centuries, its vineyards spread across approximately 100 hectares — a rare scale for Sauternes, and a crucial element in Yquem’s ability to craft balance in challenging vintages.

At the heart of Yquem’s identity lies botrytis cinerea, the noble rot that concentrates sugars, acids and aromas. Yet at Yquem, botrytis is never rushed. Harvests unfold through multiple passes, sometimes stretching over weeks, as each parcel and even individual bunches are picked only when they reach the desired balance. This selective approach explains not only the wine’s consistency, but also why certain vintages are simply not produced if conditions fail to align.

Élevage follows equally strict principles. Château d’Yquem is aged exclusively in 100% new French oak, medium toast, with fine grain — a choice maintained regardless of vintage strength. The goal is not to mark the wine with wood, but to create a slow, long-term interaction between oak and botrytis-derived aromas, a process that underpins the wine’s remarkable ageing potential.

More recently, climate change has altered the estate’s parameters. Warmer, drier years now allow for greater concentration and more frequent high-sugar vintages than in the past. Yquem’s response has not been to chase power, but to refine its understanding of texture, bitterness and soil expression as alternative sources of freshness. It is this quiet evolution — respectful of tradition yet acutely aware of modern realities — that continues to define the estate.

The Winemaker: Toni El Khawand

Since joining Château d’Yquem, Toni El Khawand has become an articulate and thoughtful guardian of one of wine’s most revered estates. His approach is defined less by intervention and more by interpretation — understanding how climate, botrytis and timing converge in each vintage, and allowing the wine to express that narrative with clarity.

During the tasting, El Khawand spoke openly about the realities of modern Yquem. Climate change has undeniably shifted the estate’s possibilities, allowing for a greater frequency of ripe, concentrated vintages than was historically possible. Where past decades might yield a single truly great year, recent years have offered a succession of powerful yet stylistically distinct wines.

Yet for El Khawand, numbers alone never define a vintage. Residual sugar, harvest dates and concentration matter only in how they serve balance. His reflections on 2023 repeatedly returned to one theme: layers — aromatic, textural and emotional — built slowly through a more extended and nuanced growing season than the intensely solar 2022.

A Defining Trilogy

Seen together, the vintages 2021, 2022 and 2023 form a rare and meaningful trilogy in the modern history of Château d’Yquem. Three consecutive years in which conditions aligned to allow the full and nuanced expression of noble rot — something that was once the exception rather than the rule. Each vintage follows its own stylistic path, yet all three share a sense of precision, balance and confidence that speaks to a changing reality in Sauternes. Rather than signaling excess, this sequence points towards a future in which great sweet wines will be defined less by rarity alone, and more by their ability to combine concentration with freshness, texture and drinkability. Against this backdrop, Yquem 2023 comes into focus.

Château d’Yquem 2023 – Tasting Note & Review

The 2023 d’Yquem presents itself with a sense of calm assurance. Nothing feels exaggerated or hurried; instead, the wine unfolds with quiet confidence, inviting attention rather than demanding it. From the outset, it feels very much in tune with the estate’s current direction — measured, precise and thoughtfully composed.

On the nose, the wine opens with clarity and freshness. Citrus and orange notes set the initial tone, framed by subtle floral nuances that add lightness and definition. As the wine settles in the glass, it begins to reveal deeper layers: hints of beeswax, a touch of cedar and a gentle warmth that suggests maturity to come rather than immediate opulence. The aromatic profile is expressive without excess, shaped more by progression than by impact.

The palate confirms this impression. There is undeniable richness, yet it is carried effortlessly by lift and energy. The texture is smooth and enveloping, filling the mouth without ever becoming weighty. What stands out most is the wine’s sense of movement: sweetness is present, but never dominant, shaped instead by a subtle interplay with bitterness towards the finish. This tension keeps the wine lively and remarkably digestible, allowing each sip to invite the next.

Rather than seeking instant charm, Yquem 2023 feels complete and self-assured, built on balance rather than sheer intensity. It brings together generosity and precision in equal measure, showing the estate’s ability to harness concentration while preserving freshness and clarity. It is unmistakably a wine for the long term, yet already deeply engaging in its youth — a young Yquem in full form.

A wine built for decades, yet already compelling in its youth.

Our score: 97+/100 DWA points

An Yquem that whispers rather than declares — and is all the more compelling for it.

A Dialogue Across Time: 2006, 2016 & 2023

To place the 2023 vintage in context, the tasting expanded into a thoughtful comparative flight of Château d’Yquem 2006 and 2016, allowing the wines to speak not only of their respective years, but of time itself. 

The 2006 represented what many still consider the classical face of Yquem. Marked by a challenging, cooler and wetter growing season, the wine today shows the rewards of patience and strict selection. Aromatically, it has moved firmly into its secondary and tertiary phase, where spices dominate: saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg and dried citrus peel. Notes of fig, raisin and candied orange sit beneath a warm, savoury profile. On the palate, the wine is less about density and more about harmony, its sweetness softened by time and its structure fully integrated. As Toni El Khawand noted during the tasting, “this is the style that defined much of the 20th century — more ethereal, more vertical, and less driven by sheer concentration.”

The 2016, tasted at ten years of age, occupied a fascinating middle ground. Still youthful, yet clearly past its primary phase, it bridged freshness and maturity. The nose combined ripe apricot, peach and roasted pineapple with pastry-like notes of vanilla, brioche and butter derived from its élevage. In the mouth, a subtle saline note emerged on the finish, opening up clear possibilities for gastronomic pairings. El Khawand described this stage as “a moment of transition, where fruit and texture still dominate, but the wine is beginning to turn towards complexity rather than intensity.”

Returning to the 2023 after these older vintages sharpened the contrast. Where 2006 spoke of spice and resolution, and 2016 of structure and evolution, 2023 stood out for its aromatic layering at such an early stage. El Khawand summarized the difference succinctly: “2022 was more immediate, more gourmand. In 2023, botrytis had more time. This is why we have more layers — and why the wine feels fresher in the mouth.”

Tasted side by side, the flight illustrated one of Yquem’s greatest strengths: consistency of identity without repetition. Each wine reflected its era, yet all three carried the unmistakable signature of the estate.

Conclusion

The launch of Château d’Yquem 2023 was more than the unveiling of a new vintage; it was a moment to reflect on how both the estate and the wider appellation of Sauternes are evolving. Once defined primarily by rarity and climatic uncertainty, Sauternes today finds itself navigating a new reality — one shaped by warmer seasons, more frequent concentration, and the challenge of preserving freshness and balance in increasingly solar years.

Within this context, Yquem continues to act as both reference point and compass. The 2023 vintage demonstrates how adaptation does not mean abandoning identity. Instead, it shows how meticulous selection, blending decisions and an acute sensitivity to texture and bitterness can redefine balance when acidity alone can no longer carry that role. As Toni El Khawand remarked during the tasting, the objective is no longer simply to react to climate, but to interpret it — parcel by parcel, vintage by vintage.

For Sauternes as a whole, this approach feels increasingly relevant. The future of the appellation may well depend on its ability to express sweetness with restraint, complexity with clarity, and power with drinkability. In that sense, Yquem 2023 does not just represent the estate’s present, but offers a glimpse of how great sweet wines may be shaped in the decades to come.

It is a wine that invites patience, yet rewards curiosity today — a young Yquem in full voice, with its most compelling chapters still unwritten.

The 2023 Chateau d’Yquem will be released for general availability on the 11^th of March and is available through De Bruijn in Wijnen and select partners.

This article is written by our own Niels Aarts. Our sincere thanks to De Bruijn in Wijnen for the invitation, to Laurent Richet MS for guiding the tasting, to Restaurant Vinkeles and Jasper van Amerongen with his team for their warm hospitality, and to Toni El Khawand for sharing insight, openness and passion. Picture credits: De Bruijn in Wijnen (Jitte van Oijen) and Château d’Yquem.