{"title":"Chateau Rieussec","description":"\u003cp\u003eSweet wines aren’t in fashion. That’s just a fact. That could be a tragedy for the growers who are keeping alive centuries-old traditions — like Sauternes — and making some of the most delicious, most complex, most age-worthy wines in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut for wine lovers willing to buck a trend, that fact is an opportunity. Or, more to the point, two opportunities rolled into one. The first opportunity is the obvious one: drink Sauternes! Unlike the wines that everyone is chasing, they are priced absurdly affordably for what they are.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTake the Château Rieussec we have for you today. Classified as a first growth since 1855, with some of the greatest terroir in France — right next to Château d’Yquem — and great old vines of Sémillon (with some Sauvignon Blanc). The climate is perfect for the “noble rot” (botrytis) which infects and shrivels the grapes, concentrating all their flavor, as well as contributing its own subtle notes of orange peel, pineapple, beeswax and even saffron. The clay and gravel soils bring minerality and elegance. The farming is absurdly intense (only perfect grapes are hand-picked one at a time), the winemaking painstakingly slow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd at the end of it all, they make almost no wine; some people claim that it takes a whole vine to make a single glass of Sauternes!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuckily for us, drinking Rieussec can be as unhurried an experience as making it. One of the great secrets of Sauternes is that the wine will keep in your fridge for at least three weeks after you open it. So go ahead and have a glass or two after dinner without worrying about not finishing the bottle: they even sell the wine with a special stopper to use after you’ve opened it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut bigger changes are afoot at Rieussec than just new stoppers: they’ve also started making a dry wine from that same incredible terroir, the “R de Rieussec,” and it’s stunning. It has some of the freshness and brightness of a white Graves, with tropical notes and a refined texture. There are echoes of Burgundy (Corton, maybe) and the faintest hint of a Sancerre (Les Monts Damnes?). But really, it’s its own thing: a scintillating expression of Sauternes in a dry form.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"chateau-rieussec-sauternes-2003-375ml-375ml","title":"Chateau Rieussec Sauternes 2003 (375ml)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSweet wines aren't in fashion, which means for wine lovers willing to buck a trend it is an opportunity. Rieussec is a Premier Cru Classé of the 1855 Sauternes classification, sitting on clay-gravel terroir just over the river from Château d'Yquem, and it has been steered by the Rothschilds of Lafite since the 1980s. 2003 was the heat-wave vintage in Bordeaux: intense, unusual, and for Sauternes a year of remarkably concentrated, almost exotic botrytis. Now mature, in the half-bottle format that suits a single meal, this is the easy way to put a great old Sauternes on the table.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hart Davis [HDH]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42290319458339,"sku":"SF-4-HDH--042126-375ml21","price":64.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0044\/1208\/0163\/files\/Bottle-of-Chateau-Rieussec-Sauternes-2003-375ml-Dessert-Wine-Flatiron-SF.jpg?v=1778626545"}],"url":"https:\/\/sf.flatiron-wines.com\/collections\/chateau-rieussec.oembed","provider":"Flatiron SF","version":"1.0","type":"link"}