1984 Chateau St. Jean, Semillon d’Or, Select Late Harvest

This is a sweet white desert style wine with a Bordeaux Sauterne like blend of 62% Semillon and 38% Sauvignon Blanc. Surprising for a California desert wine, it truly tastes like a very good Sauterne and I have tasted great Sauternes like the Ch. Yquem from 1975, 1967, 1959, 1945, 1937 and 1928. This wine it not in that class, but it is still a very good Sauterne style wine, and far and away the best California dessert wine I have every tasted. It was very dark golden color, like some older Sauternes (not as dark as the 1945 Yquem), it was still sweet with layers of honey and apricots. It had plenty of acidity and was very well structured, with a long, lingering finish. My rating 88.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Chateau St. Jean makes this wine or anything like it anymore, but it certainly shows that it is possible to make very good Sauterne like wines in California that hold up to aging like true Bordeaux Sauterne.

Tasted 1/5/2005.