On another level, the 2020 Château Suduiraut is flat-out stunning and boasts a phenomenal array of orange blossom, honeyed minerality, lychee nut, caramelized peach, and assorted spices. Rich, full-bodied, and concentrated, it nevertheless has the vintage’s riveting purity and precision. Sauternes doesn't get much better.
98 points, Jeb Dunnuck (Mar 2023)
What an amazing nose of tropical fruits like lychees, mangoes and pineapples, with botrytis spice, too. Full and very layered with candied apple, tangerines and kumquats. Sweet and so balanced. Super brightness, too. Acidity balances it out. Pure semillon. Production was only 4 hectoliters per hectare.
98 points, James Suckling (Nov 2023)
The 2020 Suduiraut, 100% Semillon, is pale to medium lemon-gold in color. It needs a little swirling to unlock vibrant scents of apple pie, pineapple upside-down cake, and pear tart, followed by hints of saffron, crushed stones, salted almonds, and acacia honey with a hint of jasmine tea. The palate is a firework display of pears, apples, baking spices, and floral notes, framed by a racy backbone and creamy texture, finishing long and layered.
97 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent (Mar 2023)
With 137 grams per liter of residual sugar, the 2020 Suduiraut possesses an exotic, deep bouquet of litchi, mango, pineapple, peach and ripe orchard fruits. Medium to full-bodied, dense and concentrated with a stunning rôti—the French term for the consequence of noble rot—it’s layered and textured with a fleshy core of fruit and a perfumed finish with notes of curry leaf and ginger, underlined by a gastronomic bitterness. The harvest took place between September 16 and November 5, encompassing one of the longest in the contemporary estate’s history yet yielding a mere 8.5 hectoliters per hectare. This 100% Sémillon was matured for 20 months in 50% new oak barrels and 50% one-year-old barrels and will offer a broad drinking window.
96 points, Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate (Jun 2024)
The 2020 Suduiraut, which is pure 100% Sémillon, has a fabulous, rich and expressive bouquet with wild honey and orange pith, dried mango hints and quince laced with melted candle wax and saffron. The palate is supremely well-balanced with the viscous texture and density you would expect from this estate. Yet there is a sense of control and tension that drags you back for another sip. Of course, we're on the open pages of a very long book, but this is already sizing up to be a very enjoyable "read".
96 points, Neal Martin, Vinous (Feb 2023)
This wine is pure Sémillon, giving richness. The weight gets a massive lift from acidity and aromatic, spicy honey. The wine's balance is impeccable, with poise and elegance, and it will age well. Drink from 2026.
96 points, Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast (Apr 2023)
Full of pleasure, silky and richly textured, easy to sink into but carefully measured at the same time, addings its layers of orange peel, bloody orange, white pepper spice and truffle slowly but surely as it inches through the palate. Tiny floral notes accompany the saline minerality on the finish. Almost no botrytis in September, and then when the weather deteriorated at the end of September things really became a bit worrying. But they were able to hold on until October 19 (after stopping at the end of September, I imagine needing nerves of steel). Yields of around 8hl/ha. 3,000 cases of Suduiraut. 137g/l of residual sugar. A great example of what botrytis does - the pH is at 4, so the freshness comes from the bitterness of botrytis not high acidities.
96 points, Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2021)