Wine: Sauternes (dessert wine)

[Mike Buckley]

A close friend is going to cook a Cuban dinner for her family including flan for dessert. I will join them, so when I saw the great price for this 2009 vintage, I couldn't resist buying it to pair with the dessert. Wine Spectator rates that vintage one of the very best in the last 15 years. I expect the wine to be so good that I plan to keep two of the bottles for years. Indeed, they recommend holding it rather than drinking it now (not that I can resist!).

The vineyard, Chateau Rabaud-Promis, is next door to the most famous dessert wine vineyard in the world, Chateau d'Yquem. The famous classification of 1855 designates both vineyards as the premier grand cru classe, the highest classification given to any wine made in Bordeaux. (EDIT: I just now learned that Chateau d'Yquem was considered so good that it was given a different classification not given to any other vineyard. No wonder their wine is so darned expensive!)

Sauternes is a wine region where the wine is typically made mostly of Semillion, a bit of Sauvignon Blanc and a tiny amount of Muscadelle. I was not able to verify the grapes used to make this wine but I do know the winery grows only those three grapes in those proportions. So, I assume all three grape species were used to make this wine.

Setup
White paper is underneath each bottle to display the orange color of the wine. (A lot of Sauternes is more gold or yellow but not this wine.) First capture: A small continuous-light lamp fitted with a diffusion sock is on the right to light the labels and lower parts of the bottles. It is also flagged to prevent a slight but unwanted reflection. Second capture: A medium continuous-light lamp also fitted with a diffusion sock is on the left front and above the bottles to light everything else. The two captures were merged.

[terrib]

I've been absent for a while but I don't think I've ever seen you photograph the bottles like this. I really like them lit this way and lying nestled in the cloth. It makes me feel like they are special, given a nice bed.

Besides the photography, I enjoy reading your posts about wine. I drink wine every day but know very little about it. I thought you could only keep reds for several years - that whites would go bad.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Terri!

The really great white wines will last for decades. Just yesterday I saw notice about a winery that will be providing a special wine tasting of many of its Chardonnay vintages going back to 1940.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Dave A]

Amazing lighting, shadows, and color.

Dave

[John 2]

Very nicely done Mike. Your lighting arrangement really has brought the wine rather than the bottles to a prominence. Beautiful and typical straw colour of an early(ish) wine. I believe they darken with age but you would know better than I. Really good work.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Mike, a beautiful image I agree with John that the shot emphasizes the wine rather than the bottles.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

About emphasizing the wine rather than the bottles: A big advantage of photographing wine stored in transparent or nearly transparent bottles is that the color of the wine becomes more apparent than in bottles that are nearly opaque, such as with most bottles used to store red wine. Laying the bottles down further emphasizes the wine because the pocket of air collects in the shoulder of the bottle. The shape of that pocket of air becomes more apparent and interesting than when the bottle is standing up and the pocket of air collects in the top of the neck. The pocket of air collects in the same place in a bottle of red wine laid down but is less obvious because of the nearly opaque wine and bottle.

[Mike Buckley]

Beautiful and typical straw colour of an early(ish) wine. I believe they darken with age but you would know better than I.

Some white wine displays that color from the outset and some doesn't. I have no idea if wine darkens over time. Referring to red wine, Wine Spectator published an article in 2003 explaining that the "chemistry of color is one of the most complex and hotly disputed topics among winemakers and academics."