Château Coutet — Château Coutet 1957

The 1957 Château Coutet from Barsac was served as a dessert accompaniment at a tasting that also featured the 1957 Château Latour and the 1953 Château Gazin. The odds of hitting the bullseye for a Sauternes/Barsac of this vintage were mixed at best: some emphasize that the spring frost was devastating for Sauternes, while others point out that the hot October — generally detrimental to the vintage — was at least not quite as damaging here. Evidently, there was great bottle luck at play, because the wine delivered an indisputable 96 points — the top score in the dessert wine category, which it shares with the Greek Ktima Montofoli 2013.