Sauternes

[Newbie23]

I had been reading a lot about Sauternes being one of the better dessert wines so I decided to try a bottle. It was a 2000 Chateau Gravas purchased at a wine shop for about $20. I found it tasted like rubbing alchol. I tried eating it with dessert thinking it might balance the taste and strength but I just couldn't stand it. Is Sauternes normally like this? I thought it was suposted to be a light sweet easy drinking dessert wine, this stuff could melt steel!

[brappy]

Rubbing alcohol......hmmmmmm I'm not sure, but I think you should take the bottle back to the wine shop and have the sales person who sold it to you try it. Sounds like a bad bottle. But I have to say, I've had a few bad bottles of dessert wine and NEVER tasted rubbing alcohol. So please try another of the same producer or another one; it could and should be a great experience.

brap

[TheEngineer]

I would agree with Brappy. Sauternes should not taste like rubbing alcohol. It should instead have a thick consistency with tastes of honey, apricot, etc,.... and a long lingering finish. IT IS ALSO VERY PLEASANT!!! I would try another producer. For $20, there are others but good sauternes tends to cost a wee bit more. Some very decent bottles from an excellent 2001 vintage can start at $25 and great ones start at $35.

[Kcwhippet]

Brappy,

One thing we don't do when someone returns a bottle to our shop is taste it. We'll gladly exchange it or refund the cost, but taste it? Never! While 99.9% of everyone returning what they say is a bad bottle may be perfectly straight and aboveboard, there's always that .1% that makes us wary. What if they had slipped something into the bottle that could do you harm? We take back about ten bottles a week with no questions asked, and we may take a sniff, but never a taste.

[winoweenie]

Very wise there noble Robert. Too many kookie-poos out there to take a chance for 20buckz. WW

[brappy]

Oh yeah......I guess you can tell I'm not in retail.

mark

[wdonovan]

If the $20 was for a full bottle (750mL), not a 375mL half bottle, then it probably WAS rubbing alcohol (just kidding of course). You could have gotten a bad bottle but in my experience $20 ain't enough for a full bottle of Sauternes that you would want to drink. I think the other posters that mentioned prices here were talking about half bottles unless they have sources much better than mine. I would return this bottle and replace it with a better bottle of a different vintage (what if this vinyard or vintage is just plain lousy). Get something for $20 to $25 a half bottle then you'll at least know what a Sauternes should taste like. After that, if you like Sauternes, you can experiment with the threshold (cheap but good enough) vintages. You'll be armed with knowledge.
One more thing. I wouldn't use the word "light" to describe a Sauternes. Other than color, they're anything but light.

[wondersofwine]

On another wine forum on the Internet, I found reviews of Chateau Gravas Sauterne from 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001. The only negative review was the one on the 2001 vintage. Other reviewers spoke of lemon-honey, apricot and caramel flavors. Maybe it needs a few more years to blossom or maybe 2000 was a mediocre vintage.