Nose
Château Suduiraut 2013 presents a powerful nose with tropical aromas such as mango, as well as notes of wood and spice with a touch of verbena.
Palate
The palate reflects the vintage's duality with a rich attack and smooth body, and is very generous with flavours of pineapple, star fruit and milky caramel. Tautness takes over for a fresh finish with notes of tangerine and white pepper.
The minerality which comes from the terroir, combined with the year's intrinsic acidity, highlights the flavours and makes the finish more persistent.
Growing Conditions
2013 was a year riddled with pitfalls: first of all we had over 500 mm of rainfall in 6 months with cool temperatures, hindering the growth of vines and generating a significant risk of mildew. We therefore had to increase summer pruning. Unfortunately the cold weather nonetheless caused blossom drop during flowering, which subsequently affected yields. Luckily, very warm, dry weather set in from July 1st. Summer conditions were favourable for ripening, and the quality was exceptional.
Harvest
From the start of the harvest we found that concentrations were worthy of the greatest vintages and we picked some very fine batches until October 3rd. Rain throughout the weekend brought things to a halt until October 7th. We ended the first picking on October 14th and immediately started the second, as we found beautiful grapes with significant concentration in every plot. The third and last picking overlapped with the second as each terroir developed at a different pace and we had to juggle operations until October 22nd while continuing to pay close attention to the grapes' concentration and their state of health. We finished on October 30th, just before severe rainfall, with the feeling that we had a great vintage...
Bottling
Bottling date: July 22nd 2015
Aging
45% in new barrels,
55% from barrels of one vintage, for 20 months.
Appearance
Green gold in colour.
