Agreed, and glad it’s still showing well. I opened one a month into lockdown and I remember it being like a ray of sunshine breaking through the fog of my day/week/month. It’s a pity they haven’t been able to make any since.
Some have come close but to me nothing has been as great as the 2001.
This is a happy choice. The fact is, Climens strives to make quality wine every vintage so I don’t think you can “go wrong”, just get different versions of the house style, and always “one of the best wines of the vintage”. Well stored bottles from the 80s and earlier are almost guaranteed to be a treat, or at least interesting. I’ve had a lot of vintages and could not complain about any, and the newer wines are very reasonably priced and even in “just good vintages” will possibly last to the next decade.
I used to avoid “off” vintages of Sauternes and Barsacs like 1981 or 1969 or 1965 or 63… The latter two had horrible reputations and were “rejected by the market” yet we see bottles cropping up, most notably the jaw dropping amount of 1965s from that Dr.'s cellar (child’s birth year) and yup, they might be light and delicate but then you are like “yeah, they are light and delicate but they are not BAD, maybe not good Sauternes but not bad” and serve them with fish dishes or chicken. I think Audouze opened my eyes with a story about 1969 d’Yquem (drunk with chicken? or maybe aperitif?) and he extolled the virtues of this tasty and interesting wine whilst the traditional side of me said “plenty of better wines to spend money on”. And the fact is that even a “poor” or “good” vintage will long outlast any other whites from anywhere.
So for these wines…buy and try, each will be an experience. And the best will outlive us all. Vive Sauternes!
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Best ever Barsac/Sauternes for me was the 1929 Climens, drunk in 2009 to celebrate a great friend’s 80th birthday. Other great vintages have been 1942 (enjoyed twice to celebrate Tom Hill’s birth year), 1971, 1975, 1976, 1983, 1986, 1988 (many many bottles), 1989, 1990, and 2001 (still too young). And a sentimental favorite is the 1980, my first Barsac/Sauternes of any kind for me, consumed in 1986 on a very special occasion.
Climens is my all-time favorite, over even Yquem, though Yquem has its own kind of specialness – you just can’t drink them all the time the way you can Climens.
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wow–praise for an even-year-vintage Sauternes 
But thanks Howard–I will have to try to find some (I think you and I tasted the 14 together and that was very good too)
Agree with you, Larry, that the 01 shows infinite promise but so far for me (3 from halves at different times over the past decade or so) has been too young every time. I really liked the 09 version and (of course?) 88.
Have a Climens mini-vertical planned for my cellar depressurization event in 2026. Maybe by then the 2001 will be ready!
I thought they might have made the best Sauternes/Barsac of everyone in 2003
- Why? Because my wife liked it and it got her to be willing to at least try Sauterne/Barsac. Also 1947. Why? because I just won a bottle at auction and anticipation is a strong emotion.
Anybody have experience with the ‘97 and what are your thoughts?
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01 is the only vintage I have tasted. Grand Vin, while I prefer Rieussec and Fargues.