Château d'Yquem· Sauternes

There is no other wine quite like Yquem, and there never has been. Alone at the summit of the 1855 classification, Premier Cru Supérieur, a rank invented for it and shared with nothing else, it is the standard against which every sweet wine in the world is measured, and found wanting.

The arithmetic is what people forget. Nine hectolitres per hectare, roughly a single glass per vine, picked grape by botrytised grape across as many tries through the vineyard as October and November demand, six passes over five weeks in 2021, the final trie of 2019 not gathered until 7 November. In a vintage the cellar judges unworthy, no Yquem is made at all. That discipline, more than any technique, is why the wine endures.

The estate has belonged to LVMH since 1999. I allocate the great years, 2015 foremost, a wine that will outlive everyone reading this, to clients who understand that a bottle of Yquem is not bought to be opened soon, but to be kept.