2019 Château Coutet Barsac 1e Grand Cru Classé.
Château Coutet is one of the premier estates of Sauternes, and more specifically Barsac, being classified as a first growth in the 1855 classification of Sauternes and Barsac. While the wines of Sauternes and Barsac are amongst the longest-lived wines in the world, in youth they are also known to be accessible and delicious – as seen in this review of the excellent 2019 vintage of Château Coutet.
About the Château
Château Coutet has a long history going back to the 13th century – when it was built by the English as a fortress. The first wine was made in 1643 by Charles Le Guérin, making it one of the oldest wine estates in the Sauternes region. After swapping hands a few times, and even being used as a horse stable by the famous noble de Lur-Saluces family (current owners of Château de Fargues, prior owners of Château d’Yquem), it ended up with the Baly family – who currently manage the estate and make as good of a wine as ever.
The plantings at Château Coutet are 75% Sémillon and 23% Sauvignon Blanc, with 2% Muscadelle being used for elegance and aromatics. Anywhere from two to ten rounds of picking grapes, greatly increasing cost of labour, are used by the Château to guarantee the highest quality – with its grand vin usually scoring among the highest points of Sauternes and Barsac combined. Each picking round and batch is vinified separately to ferment and mature on their own – after which old cellar-masters of Château Coutet return to the estate to guide the current team in blending the most perfect wine possible in that vintage. For these reasons, Château Coutet is seen as one of the greatest estates in Barsac – along with Châteaux Climens and Doisy-Daëne. While the estates in Barsac also have the right to label their wines with the more widely known Sauternes AOC, these three estates specifically label their wines with Barsac AOC as to represent its distinct terroir as well as possible.
Besides the grand vin, a second wine called La Chartreuse de Coutet is produced from younger vines, and a super-premium, rare bottling of Cuvée Madame is occasionally made – with its price being on par with d’Yquem. This cuvée started as a gift from the vineyard workers to honour Madame Rolland-Guy, owner of the estate from 1922 until 1977, by dedicating a day to her by picking the most raisined grapes. The cuvée, comprised of purely very old-vine Sémillon, is only made in the best years, and only released when mature. ‘Recent’ releases include the 2009, 2003, 2001, and 1997 vintages. Besides producing sweet wine, Château Coutet also makes Opalie de Coutet – a white, dry wine of roughly equal amounts Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc from some of the older vines of the estate. With the limestone terroir of Barsac being well-suited to the production of dry white wine, this bottling is definitely one to watch for the future.
About the Winemaking
Essential in the wines of Sauternes and Barsac is the occurrence of Botrytis cinerea, often called noble rot. This is the same fungus that causes grey rot; but under specific circumstances it can be used to make some of the greatest sweet wines of the world like German Trockenbeerenauslese, Tokaji Eszencia, and Sauternes.
Important factors for noble rot to occur, instead of grey rot, is that the grapes are fully ripe, and that the grapes are grown in a humid region that sees foggy morning followed by sunny afternoons. The humid conditions allow the rot to develop, and the sunny afternoons ensure that the rot does not progress too far so that the grapes become too damaged. This way, the fungus punctures tiny holes in the skins of the grapes, allowing water to evaporate in the sunny afternoons and the sugars, acids, and flavours in the grapes to concentrate – yielding intense, luscious sweet wines. Botrytis also adds some flavours of its own to the wines, commonly described as ginger, honey, mushroom, and even saffron after the wine has seen some bottle age.
As it is rare that whole vineyards get affected at once, traditionally multiple picking rounds (locally known as tris) are used by Châteaux in order to progressively seek out the bunches, or sometimes even individual grapes, that show perfect botrytis. For the 2019 Château Coutet bottling, three picking rounds were done because of the relatively uniform botrytis that this vintage yielded. In less uniform vintages, like 2015, Coutet went as far as carrying out ten picking rounds as to ensure outstanding quality in the bottle.
About the Region
Barsac sets itself apart from Sauternes primarily due to its soils. The soils consist of cool, sandy clay over limestone soils, whereas in Sauternes there are more gravelly soils which are warmer than clay soils. Due to this, Barsac is said to yield lighter, more elegant wines – something that in the face of global warming is seen by many as a benefit. Adding to this, the flatter plains of Barsac are said to be relatively worse at capturing the morning mists (causing botrytis) than the hillier terrain of Sauternes – again resulting in a lighter, more elegant style of wine.
Château Coutet seems to have fully embraced this notion, with Coutet being a Gascon word for knife. The metaphor of a knife of acidity and freshness cutting through the luscious sweetness of the wine seems fully justified in this case – as evidenced by our tasting note.
The allowed yields per hectare are a mere 25 hectoliters per hectare – whereas the famous Médoc communes of Margaux, Saint-Julien and Margaux allow 57 hectoliters per hectare. However, in practice the yield in Sauternes and Barsac lies much lower – around 10 to 15 hectoliters per hectare, depending on how strict the estates sort their grapes and wait for the perfect botrytis to arrive. This roughly translates to a vine in Sauternes producing slightly over one glass of wine per vintage, as opposed to one vine classically producing a whole bottle of wine in the Médoc.
Luckily the 2019 vintage in Sauternes and Barsac had good conditions for botrytis due to fogs arriving in the beginning October after a long and warm summer, causing the ripe grapes to become affected with the much-wanted botrytis. Vintages like these are unfortunately not seen each year, with vintage variation being an issue in Sauternes as the right conditions for botrytis (ripe grapes, morning fogs, and sunny, dry afternoons) are not fulfilled each year.
A prime example of this is vintage of 2012, where a warm and dry autumn, without the fogs needed for botrytis, followed a growing season full of rain and rot. These factors caused the average yield to be only 2.5 hectoliters per hectare in Sauternes, with top estates such as Châteaux d’Yquem, Rieussec, Suduiraut and Raymond-Lafon not making any of their grand vin at all. Of recent vintages, especially 2014, 2011, 2009, 2005, 2003, 2001, 1990, 1989, and 1988 have had excellent conditions for botrytis – all having produced rich, luscious wines that are extremely long-lived.
About the Wine
Château Coutet 2019 has a lovely golden colour, with a very classical, beautiful nose of botrytis. Intense notes of honey, candied peach, candied lemon, pineapple, mango, white flowers, vanilla, ginger, apricot, ripe pear, baked apple, acacia, honeysuckle, nectarine, marmalade, brioche, and biscuit are present on the nose and palate. Extremely complex with a lot of depth. The luscious sweetness of the wine (142 grams per liter of residual sugar) is beautifully balanced by high acidity and freshness – typical hallmarks of the greatest limestone-dominant wines of Barsac.
The oak is intense but very well-integrated and balanced by pronounced fruit and botrytis notes. Floral notes bring elegance and lift to the intense and rich wine. Especially the high acidity of the wine, something not always found in wines from this region, gives great balance and drinkability. A very slight saffron note is already noticeable, which will likely become more apparent with more time in bottle – with it being a classical hallmark of aged botrytis wines (especially from Sauternes and Barsac). Great energy. Delicious. Can age for many decades more and become even more delicious and complex.
We reward this wine with a 95-point DWA score. Drink 2024-2059.
This review is written by our own Martin Bronkhorst. Château Coutet is imported in the Netherlands by Colaris among others and sold through various retailers, amongst which Wijnkoperij van Bilsen.
Price: €49,95
Taste date: July 2024
Score: 95/100 DWA Score
Website: Château Coutet