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No parking houses, no motor ways, no shopping centers, not even a general store. It is hard to judge the age of some of the houses you pass, but undoubtedly some of them are very old. The roads are narrow and winding and the vineyards are small.
Only Yquem with its chateau is of a larger size. Possibly 8 or 9 of the 11 vineyards, classed as Premier Crus, are reasonably large. All the others are small family businesses.
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The wine has been produced in the same way for hundreds of years and the grapes are picked by hand. Often one by one.
How is it possible for this idyllic area to exist relatively undisturbed in our modern times? I can only find one explanation: a combination of nature and the generational knowledge base of the winemakers in Sauternes that have worked in harmony to maintain a wine of superior quality whose quality remains as high today as it was hundreds of years ago. |
The production of the wine today is very similar to the methods used centuries ago. Of course tractors have replaced draught horses, but that is just about as far as it goes.
The grapes are picked by hand. Fermentation and aging takes place in oak vats in the same way as those Sauternes produced back then in the 1600’s.
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