Château d'Yquem itself was acquired by Jacques de Sauvage in December of 1593. De Sauvage acquired the property from the French monarchy by exchanging other lands that he owned for what was then referred to as the 'House of Yquem'.
The site has been home to a vineyard since at least 1711 when the estate became fully owned by Léon de Sauvage d'Yquem. In 1785 it passed to the Lur-Saluces family when Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage d'Yquem married Count Louis-Amédée de Lur-Saluces, the godson of Louis XV and Lady Victoire de France. Monsieur Lur-Saluces died three years later, and his wife henceforth focused her energy on sustaining and improving the estate; indeed, the Château as it is now known is largely due to her work, as well as that of her descendants, who ran the property for over 200 years and whose name remains on the label to this day.
Château d'Yquem references in literature and cinema...
-In the sixth Episode of the Japanese TV-Series My Little Chef Château d'Yquem plays a vital role.
-Proust's hero in À la recherche du temps perdu "...sips Yquems which lay concealed in the Guermantes cellars."
-Fyodor Dostoevsky mentions Château d'Yquem in part II of The Possessed (also known as The Devils or Demons) as the last wine drunk by a young man in a hotel who commits suicide after having squandered 400 roubles given to him by his family to make purchases for his sister's wedding.
-In her autobiography, My Life in France, Julia Child mentions celebrating Christmas Eve in 1949 and 1950 with a bottle of 1929 Château d'Yquem with Peter and Mari Bicknell in Cambridge, England.
-Château d'Yquem is a favorite of Hannibal Lecter. In the novel Hannibal, he tracked down and purchased a bottle of Château d'Yquem that was bottled in the year of Clarice Starling's birth as a 33rd birthday gift for her.
-Château d'Yquem is said to be the favourite wine of Old Etonian Denys Finch Hatton (1887-1931), the Kenya-based white hunter, aviator,bon vivant, and lover of novelist Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen).
-Château d'Yquem is the wine used to poison Mikhail Skobelev in Boris Akunin's novel The Death of Achilles.
-Château d'Yquem is mentioned by the narrator in the novel Una familia lejana [Distant Relations] by Carlos Fuentes.
-Château d'Yquem is mentioned in Harold Q. Masur's 1949 novel, Suddenly a Corpse.
-Château d'Yquem is the favourite tipple of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman, in works by J. P. Donleavy.
-A bottle of Château d'Yquem appears in the end of episode Body and Soul from TV series Star Trek: Voyager. It is mentioned by character 'Seven of Nine' (citing the Culinary Database) as the ideal accompaniment to a Foie Gras with Truffle meal.
-A bottle of infamous "Thomas Jefferson" Château d'Yquem is mentioned in Season 3 Episode 6 of the Showtime series Dexter, when describing the greatness of a Miami-based restaurant's wine cellar.
-Humphrey Bogart mentions Château d'Yquem in the film We're No Angels.
-Fifi Flowers famous words... "Let's buy a case of Château d'Yquem and celebrate... Long Live April in Paris!"
and I say we celebrate here at Château d'Yquem...
Merci beaucoup to my friend Kirsten Lobe (living, writing and being a maman in Paris) for giving moi this information via Wikipedia.
Tomorrow is the end... le sigh... of April in Paris... and the end of my A to Z Challenge... À demain...
