Bordeaux

Quick question: it states that Y by D’Yquem has been sold under the Bordeaux Supérieur AOP occasionally, however white wines in this AOP are medium/sweet. Has this AOP allowed dry white wines in the past? 

Hey Chris! Great question. From 1959-2002 Y d'Yquem was labelled as  Bordeaux Supérieur AOP. Since 2004 it has been under the Bordeaux AOP level. That being said, producing a dry wine under the AOP is possible as the requirement for 17 g/l RS is "fermentable" sugar. Therefore it is possible to hit the requirement and then ferment to dry. 

Hmmm, I do not concur with that assessment. The section ‘Informations sur la qualité et les caractéristiques du produit’ in the Cahier des Charges’ indicates to me that these wines are bottled with unfermented (but fermentable) sugars leaving a residual sweetness in the wine ('Les vins blancs avec sucres fermentescibles'). With regards to the must weight minimum, the section on ‘2°- Maturité du raisin’ indicates that to be 195 g/l, of which 17 g/l must be left unfermented. The CIVB also markets whites labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur AOP as ‘sweet whites’ (see here). With regards to the original query, I believe what actually changed was the style of the Ygrec itself–historically it would have been a white wine with sweetness and labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur, but the style evolved toward an intentional wine fermented to dryness and hence the shift in labeling from Bordeaux Supérieur to Bordeaux AOP. Alas, I still see recent vintages of Ygrec listed as Bordeaux Supérieur on some rather prominent wine lists even though that is not how it is labeled on the bottle and it does not taste as one would expect a white labeled Bordeaux Supérieur to taste.

Hmmm, I do not concur with that assessment. The section ‘Informations sur la qualité et les caractéristiques du produit’ in the Cahier des Charges’ indicates to me that these wines are bottled with unfermented (but fermentable) sugars leaving a residual sweetness in the wine ('Les vins blancs avec sucres fermentescibles'). With regards to the must weight minimum, the section on ‘2°- Maturité du raisin’ indicates that to be 195 g/l, of which 17 g/l must be left unfermented. The CIVB also markets whites labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur AOP as ‘sweet whites’ (see here). With regards to the original query, I believe what actually changed was the style of the Ygrec itself–historically it would have been a white wine with sweetness and labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur, but the style evolved toward an intentional wine fermented to dryness and hence the shift in labeling from Bordeaux Supérieur to Bordeaux AOP. Alas, I still see recent vintages of Ygrec listed as Bordeaux Supérieur on some rather prominent wine lists even though that is not how it is labeled on the bottle and it does not taste as one would expect a white labeled Bordeaux Supérieur to taste.

Hey Keith! We have reached out to the Chateau. A definitive answer will be here shortly.