Tasted blind at the Sauternes 2011 horizontal tasting. The Château Rieussec 2011 transcends its somewhat “middling” performance from barrel and delivers a knockout wine in bottle. For sure, it demonstrates a lot of vanilla from the new oak on the nose, complemented by almond, French patisserie and touches of white peach. The élevage is more expressive than the terroir at the moment, although there is clearly a lot of fruit underneath. The palate is very well balanced, with thickly textured honeyed fruits that lacquer the inside of the mouth and stay there. This is extremely well balanced but very young and primal, yet the crescendo of flavors is very impressive. Tasted blind, I hazarded a guess that this might be Yquem ’11. Enough said. NM
