Elite Traveler Summer 2024

REIMAGINING A CLASSIC Even a classic estate like 400-year-old Château d’Yquem, which makes one of the most fabled sweet wines in the world, has to evolve to cope with changing fashions. Yquem’s golden-colored aura goes back to Thomas Je ff erson, Russian dukes and royalty — the wine was served at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. In the 19th century it was paired with roast beef. Today, the vogue for sweet wines is long gone, and they’ve been relegated to dessert. “Yquem is a long story of a great wine,” estate manager Lorenzo Pasquini told me. But, he explained, “We have to change peoples’ mentality about its versatility, open up new possibilities for enjoying it, and give more people a chance to taste it at least once in their life.” In 2022, the chateau launched The Lighthouse Program, in which 30 top restaurants, or ‘lighthouses,’ created a main dish on the menu to pair with a glass of Yquem. The chateau borrowed the concept from the chef at Hong Kong’s Caprice, who’d served an old vintage with a smoky duck dish. Last year, 15 additional restaurants joined the community, among them Sushi Nakazawa in New York. Sushi with sweet wine? It’s fabulous. Current Yquem vintages are fresher and more crystalline than in the past, with more intense aromas and the taste of fresh white peaches and apricots. The 2022 vintage will be the fi rst one certi fi ed organic. yquem.fr

This image 400-year-old Château d’Yquem Below Guests at the Naples Wine Festival

A FORCE FOR GOOD At the end of January, I was in Naples, Florida, for the biggest annual wine charity auction in the US. It’s the climax of a several-day festival that was founded in 2001, and in 2024 the auction raised more than $33m, a record-breaking amount. This year’s event drew nearly 30 illustrious vintners from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italy, Oregon and California, like Frederic Faye from Château Figeac and Veronique Boss-Drouhin from Burgundy. And no wonder: The event is a fabulous way to highlight wines to wealthy collectors at walk-around tastings and intimate dinners featuring celeb chefs. Many vintners donate rare vintages, and exclusive dinners or overnight stays at their properties as part of a lavish auction lot. It’s a win-win for both the vintners and the attendees, who have the chance to forge friendships with winemakers and sample wines they might not have tried before — like the new Château d’Estoublon Roseblood rosé that was dispensed from a cute cart on the lawn outside the auction tent. And the festival itself has kept up to date by pulling in younger buyers, jazzier music and an

ART AND WINE Recently, I was sipping the best no-alcohol sparkling wine I’ve tasted yet while talking to Patrick McKillen, owner of Château La Coste near Aix-en-Provence. His vision for a wine paradise where people can relax, re fl ect and gather to share wine, art and food has been perfectly realized at his wine estate. Its peaceful landscape of olive groves, stone pines, lavender edged vineyards, and gentle fi elds and hills is also home to great art and architecture, Michelin-starred restaurants and an elegant hotel. When McKillen, an Irish international hotelier, property developer and passionate art lover, bought La Coste in 2002, his fi rst priority was improving the wine with organic and biodynamic viticulture. He began inviting artist friends to visit and create artwork for the property. The collection has grown to nearly 40 sculptures, all permanently displayed on the estate’s grounds, and famous architects have created striking spaces, like the unusual state-of-the-art winery by Jean Nouvel and an art center by Tadao Ando with regular exhibitions. You can wander them all, glass of rosé in hand. Restaurants (there are now several) and Villa La Coste & Spa’s expensive art- fi lled suites followed, so people could stay longer to enjoy the art alongside the wine. But the vision continues to evolve: a massive exhibit of 85 works by Damien Hirst this past spring; more artworks in the future; a new, less expensive Auberge; and this year’s launch of two delicious no-alcohol rosés, one sparkling and one not, in artistic bottles

energized atmosphere. napleswinefestival.com

under the NOOH label. chateau-la-coste.com