The estate took the name of Suduiraut in 1580 on the marriage of Nicole d’Allard to Léonard de Suduiraut. The château was plundered and burned down during the Fronde insurrection, then rebuilt in the 17th century. It was re-named Cru du Roy in the late 18th century on being taken over by a nephew of the Suduiraut family, Jean Joseph Duroy, Baron of Noaillan. The family home then acquired a cartouche featuring the Suduiraut and Duroy coats of arms, which was to give rise to the escutcheon used by Château Suduiraut today. The property was planted with magnificent formal gardens, designed by Le Nôtre, King Louis XIV’s renowned gardener. On 18 April 1855 the estate was classed as a Premier Cru during the official wine classification programme in the Gironde winegrowing area. AXA Millésimes acquired Suduiraut in 1992 with the aim of preserving and perpetuating the estate’s remarkable tradition of vineyard management and winemaking. Inspired by the great Suduiraut wines of the past, the new management has enabled this great vineyard to fulfil its full potential in recent years.
A match of opposites
This superb terroir, bathed in sunlight and embraced by autumnal mists generously supplied by the Ciron and Garonne rivers, benefits from ideal conditions for the development of noble rot.
The vineyard’s 92 hectares are on a sandy, gravelly soil whose stones capture the heat of the sun, helping the grapes to ripen more quickly. It is this unique terroir that gives the wine its outstanding opulence.
This thin soil which retains very little water leads to low yields. It concentrates the grapes’ qualities and forces the vine to draw its nourishment from deep in the earth. The wine’s relationship with the terroir is even stronger because of this, and it expresses itself with strongly-marked minerality.
It is this match of opposites, opulence and minerality, that transforms the tasting experience into a revelation for the senses.
WINE SPECTATOR — 95
Producer Château Suduiraut
Category Wine - Still - White
Grapes Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc
Geography Bordeaux, France
Appellation Sauternes
Features Botrytized, Sweet wine
alc 14%
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