The cellar master at Château d’Yquem is a cellar mistress; Sandrine Garbay is well known in Bordeaux and further afield as being the talented wine maker of this prestigious property and is often cited as an example of the current increasing role of women in winemaking in Bordeaux;
But visiting Yquem yesterday the point was made that a women playing a leading role in Yquem’s history is nothing new.
In 1711 the Sauvage family became full owners of the property and it was passed down to Françoise Josephine de Sauvage d’Yquem who married Count Louis Amédé de Lur Saluces in 1785.
3 years later her husband died and the young widow took over the property. She was quite a lady, being thrown into prison twice during the French revolution but she continued to make Yquem prosper, even building a new wine cellar in 1826 and introducing picking in several waves When she died in 1851 just before the famous classification that ranked Yquem top of the Bordeaux vineyards, she left a thriving estate to her grandson.