Sauternes: Bordeaux's Sweet Wine, Rules, Taste and Food

Sauternes is a sweet white wine from the south of Bordeaux, made mostly from Sémillon grapes that have been shriveled on the vine by noble rot. It is golden, rich and honeyed, and the best bottles can age for decades. If you want one bottle to understand what a great dessert wine is, start here. This guide covers where it comes from, the rules behind the name, the 1855 classification led by Château d’Yquem, and how to serve and pair it.

Where Sauternes comes from

Sauternes lies in the south of Bordeaux, along the Garonne and its small, cold tributary, the Ciron. The appellation’s official rules (its cahier des charges, approved in 2021) limit it to five communes: Sauternes, Barsac, Bommes, Fargues and Preignac. Only still white wine with residual sugar may use the name.

The same document says the vineyard covered more than 2,200 hectares (5,436 acres) in 2010 and produced on average 41,000 hectoliters of wine, from about 190 independent estates. The Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855, the body of the classified estates, gives a vineyard area of about 1,550 ha (3,830 acres) for the Sauternes appellation and 600 ha (1,483 acres) for Barsac.

Sauternes and Barsac

Barsac is one of the five Sauternes communes, and the appellation rules note that the Ciron separates it from Sauternes, Bommes and Preignac. Barsac also has its own appellation, so a wine from Barsac may carry either name. The 1855 Classification body describes the difference in the ground: in Sauternes, erosion has turned the gravel into gentle hillsides of 15 to 60 meters, while Barsac has red soil dotted with pebbles. In our view, you don’t need to choose between them as a beginner: both are made the same way from the same grapes.

How noble rot makes Sauternes

Sauternes depends on noble rot, the fungus Botrytis cinerea. When it attacks ripe grapes in the right conditions, it pierces the skins, the grapes lose water and shrivel, and their sugar, acidity and flavor become concentrated.

The 1855 Classification body explains why it happens here. From the end of September, early morning mists rise from the Garonne and the colder Ciron, held in by the pine forest of the Landes. The botrytis then has just enough time to perforate the skin and leave the pulp intact.

Noble rot doesn’t arrive evenly. Some grapes in a bunch are ready while others are not, so the rules require that Sauternes be picked by hand in successive passes through the vineyard, called tries. The ODG Sauternes & Barsac, the appellations’ governing body, says three to five passes are needed and the harvest can last up to three months. The 1855 Classification body says the great growths go through the vines five or six times, and nine or ten in some years, from about the beginning of October into November, or even December in extreme cases.

The rules in numbers

The 2021 cahier des charges sets these minimums:

Rule	Sauternes requirement
Harvest	By hand, in successive passes, from grapes with noble rot
Sugar in the grapes	At least 221 g per liter of juice
Potential alcohol (natural)	At least 15%
Actual alcohol in the wine	At least 12%
Residual sugar	At least 45 g per liter in every wine sold
Yield	25 hectoliters per hectare (cap of 28)
Vine density	At least 6,500 vines per hectare
Release	After June 30 of the year after the harvest

One more rule shows how the appellation protects the process: any vineyard spray aimed specifically at botrytis is banned. The 1855 Classification body adds that the great growths actually harvest only 10 to 15 hl/ha, well under the legal limit.

Note: The 15% “natural” figure is the alcohol the grape sugar could make if it all fermented. Fermentation stops long before that, leaving the sugar that makes the wine sweet. For how ABV is shown on US labels, see our guide to wine alcohol content.

The grapes

The rules allow four white grapes: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle. The ODG Sauternes & Barsac gives the typical mix as:

Grape	Share	What it brings (ODG)
Sémillon	About 80%	Roundness, aromatic finesse, richness and complexity
Sauvignon Blanc	About 20%	Acidity and aromatic richness
Muscadelle	A few percent	A minor, very fragile grape

The 1855 Classification body says Sémillon accounts for over 80% of the vines and up to 100% at some châteaux. Our guide to Semillon covers the grape in its dry styles too.

The 1855 classification

In 1855, for the Paris Universal Exhibition requested by Napoleon III, Bordeaux’s wine brokers ranked the region’s top estates by reputation and trading price; Wikipedia’s account dates the brokers’ list to April 18, 1855. Alongside the Médoc reds, it ranked the sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac, and it singled out Château d’Yquem as the only Premier Cru Supérieur (superior first growth).

The Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855’s current list has 27 classified estates:

Rank	Number	Examples
Premier Cru Supérieur	1	Château d’Yquem
Premiers Crus (first growths)	11	Château La Tour Blanche, Château Suduiraut, Château Coutet, Château Climens, Château Guiraud, Château Rieussec
Deuxièmes Crus (second growths)	15	Château Doisy-Védrines, Château Filhot, Château Nairac, Château de Malle, Château Lamothe-Guignard

What Sauternes tastes like

The ODG Sauternes & Barsac counts more than 50 aromas in its wines and groups them into six families: citrus, exotic fruit, dried and candied fruit, orchard fruit, spices and white flowers. Wine Folly describes sweet, noble-rot Semillon as thick and honeyed, with apricot, honey and saffron.

Age changes the wine a lot. The ODG says the color deepens toward amber over time: paler, younger wines are fresh and fruity and meant to be drunk young, while golden wines show dried and candied fruit and more complexity. In our view, that makes Sauternes a good wine for two different moods: a young, bright bottle for a summer aperitif, an older one for a long dinner.

The ODG credits Sauvignon Blanc with bringing acidity, which balances the sugar. Sauternes is also fairly strong: Wine Folly lists it at about 14.5% alcohol.

How to read the label

• “Sauternes” or “Barsac” is the appellation, the place the wine comes from.
• A château on the 1855 list (see the table above) is one of the 27 classified estates, ranked Premier Cru or Deuxième Cru; Premier Cru Supérieur belongs to Yquem alone.
• Château is the producing estate.
• The vintage matters a great deal, because noble rot doesn’t arrive every year in the same way.
• Bottle size: a 375 ml half bottle (about 12.7 ounces) pours about four 3-ounce glasses.

Food pairing

We’d start with blue cheese, which both the ODG and Wine Folly suggest for sweet Sémillon wines: sweet meets salty. See our guide to wine and cheese pairing for why that works.

The ODG Sauternes & Barsac’s own suggestions go further. It lists tapas, seafood, fine fish, poultry, cheese and desserts in general, and names:

• Classic: apple tart, blue cheese, rhubarb crumble, chocolate fondant.
• Unusual: clams (coques) and a cream of butternut squash.
• Cocktails: the ODG lists Sauternes cocktails with names such as “White Negroni” and “Rabaud French Martini”.

We’d avoid very sweet desserts: the wine should always be at least as sweet as the food, or it tastes thin. Fruit tarts, crème brûlée and roast chicken with a rich sauce are safer than a sugary cake.

Good-value Sauternes

We don’t name specific Sauternes bottles on this page yet. Our picks follow how we rate wine: every wine needs a published critic score for a named vintage and a US price checked at two or more retailers, and we apply our thresholds to the price of a full 750 ml bottle. A 375 ml half bottle at $25 counts as $50 a bottle, which is why most Sauternes struggles to qualify as a value pick.

What to look for: in our view, the cheapest way into Sauternes is a half bottle from a good vintage, or a wine from an unclassified estate in Barsac or Sauternes rather than one of the 27 classified names.

How to serve Sauternes

• Temperature: the ODG Sauternes & Barsac recommends serving it chilled at 8 to 10°C (46 to 50°F).
• Pour: we’d pour small glasses of about 3 ounces, in a dessert or white wine glass.
• After opening: the ODG says a bottle keeps about 15 days in the fridge.
• Aging: Wine Folly says sweet Sauternes-style Semillon lasts 10 to 15 years or more, and sometimes beyond 50 years in exceptional vintages.

Tip: We’d chill a bottle in the fridge for a couple of hours and take it out a few minutes before pouring, so it lands in the ODG’s 8 to 10°C range rather than ice cold.

Similar wines to try

If you like Sauternes, Hungary’s Tokaji is the other famous noble-rot wine, made mainly from Furmint. Ice wine gets its sweetness from grapes frozen on the vine instead of noble rot.