France · 18th century
Château d'Yquem (French: [ʃɑto dikɛm]) is a Premier Cru Supérieur (Fr: "Superior First Growth") wine from the Sauternes, Gironde, region in the southern part of the Bordeaux vineyards known as Graves. In the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Château d'Yquem was the only Sauternes given this rating, indicating its perceived superiority and higher prices over all other wines of its type. Yquem's success stems largely from the site's susceptibility to attack by "noble rot" (a particular kind of infestation by Botrytis cinerea).
Wines from Château d'Yquem are characterised by their complexity, concentration and sweetness, which is balanced by relatively high acidity. With proper care, a bottle will keep for a century or more, and the fruity overtones will gradually fade and integrate with more complex secondary and tertiary flavours.
Since 1959, Château d'Yquem has also produced a dry white wine called Ygrec (the name of the letter "Y" in French), made predominantly from Sauvignon blanc and a few lots of Sémillon. It was originally produced only in select years; since 2004 it has been produced every year.
Text adapted from “Château d'Yquem” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château d'Yquem ranks #590 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #53 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded c. 1800, it is older than 12% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 696 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 15,041 times in the last 60 days, more than 96% of the atlas. 9 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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