2009 Château Giscours, Margaux, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Hold +1 year or carafe for 3 hours.
The rich texture is clear visually with its inky plum colour, and this has plenty of ripe damson and black cherry fruit on the attack. Bitter chocolate and smoked turmeric add opulence, although the tannins remain tight, and this is a little abrupt on the finish. It's less suave than many 2009s right now, although it's clear underlying power. First year with Denis Dubourdieu as a consultant, 50% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 22 to October 13.
Drink 2024 - 2042
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (July 2024)
The 2009 Giscours has a generous and complex bouquet with well-defined blackberry, cedar, mocha and light ferrous notes, more like a Saint-Julien than Margaux. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, fresh and vibrant with curry leaf and graphite. A dash of white pepper pops up towards the finish. This is a very fine Giscours to enjoy over the next 15 to 20 years.
Drink 2023 - 2040
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (March 2019)
53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 7% Cabernet Franc.
Purple-ruby. Enticing aromas of cassis, violet, quinine and ink. Sweet, dense and suave, with noteworthy precision to its plum and cassis flavours. Finishes very smooth and long, with a persistent note of smoky plum. Lovely wine, with the ready-to-drink charm typical of the 2009, even if it's a little simple today. But this wine is beginning to close down and should keep splendidly, likely picking up further complexity.
Ian D'Agata, Vinous.com (January 2012)
The finest Giscours in my professional career (I said the same thing from barrel), this dense purple wine has a stunning nose of burning embers, charcoal, creme de cassis, new saddle leather and damp, forest floor notes. It is full-bodied, with exceptionally sweet, well-integrated tannins and a multi-dimensional, almost skyscraper-like mid-palate and finish. With its low acidity and remarkable substance and depth, this gorgeous wine should age beautifully for 20-30 years.
Drink 2012 - 2042
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (December 2011)
Round and polished and a pleasant drink but obviously simpler than most of the wines in this collecion of 2009 bordeaux.
Drink 2015 - 2027
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2024)
This powerful yet well-structured Margaux has a lot of positive cabernet sauvignon character (cassis, ripe plum) for the appellation—long, very clean, positive finish.
Drink or hold
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2019)
About this WINE
Chateau Giscours
Château Giscours is one of the largest Margaux properties and now producing wine worthy of its 3ème Cru Classé status. It is located in the commune of Labarde and has over 80 hectares of vineyards.
Giscours was in a dire state when it was acquired by Nicholas Tari in 1952. He invested heavily and the quality of the wine improved beyond recognition. In 1995 he sold up the property to Dutch businessman Eric Albada Jelgersma.
Giscours's wine is typically a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. The grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled tanks and the wine is then aged in small oak barrels (30-40% new) for 18 months.
Giscours produces richly aromatic wines that are surprisingly powerful on the palate, displaying ripe, black fruit with hints of cedar and new oak.
France
Despite their own complacency, occasional arrogance and impressive challenges from all-comers, France is still far and away the finest wine-producing nation in the world and its famous regions – Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Loire, Rhône, Alsace and increasingly Languedoc Roussillon – read like a who’s who of all you could want from a wine. Full-bodied, light-bodied, still or fizzy, dry or sweet, simple or intellectual, weird and wonderful, for drinking now or for laying down, France’s infinitesimal variety of wines is one of its great attributes. And that’s without even mentioning Cognac and Armagnac.
France’s grape varieties are grown, and its wines emulated, throughout the world. It also brandishes with relish its trump card, the untranslatable terroir that shapes a wine’s character beyond the range of human knowledge and intervention. It is this terroir - a combination of soil and microclimate - that makes Vosne-Romanée taste different to Nuits-St Georges, Ch. Langoa Barton different to Ch. Léoville Barton.
France is a nation with over 2,000 years of winemaking, where the finest grapes and parcels of land have been selected through centuries of trial and error rather than market research. Its subtleties are never-ending and endlessly fascinating. Vintage variation is as great here as anywhere – rain, hail, frost and, occasionally, burning heat can ruin a vintage. Yet all this creates interest, giving the wines personality, and generating great excitement when everything does come together.
However, this is not to say that French wine is perfect. Its overall quality remains inconsistent and its intricate system of classification and Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) based on geography as opposed to quality is clearly flawed, sometimes serving as a hindrance to experimentation and improvement.
Nevertheless, the future is bright for France: quality is better than ever before – driven by a young, well-travelled and ambitious generation of winemakers – while each year reveals new and exciting wines from this grand old dame.
Cabernet Sauvignon blend
Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.
In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and Australia.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Hold +1 year or carafe for 3 hours.
The rich texture is clear visually with its inky plum colour, and this has plenty of ripe damson and black cherry fruit on the attack. Bitter chocolate and smoked turmeric add opulence, although the tannins remain tight, and this is a little abrupt on the finish. It's less suave than many 2009s right now, although it's clear underlying power. First year with Denis Dubourdieu as a consultant, 50% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 22 to October 13.
Drink 2024 - 2042
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (July 2024)
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