2010 Château Giscours, Margaux, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Harvest September 27 to October 14.
High levels of Cabernet Sauvignon reflect how well this grape did in the 2016 vintage and replanting in the vineyards, and you start to see the Giscours of today. Beautiful, this, for me, is hugely better than 2009, with creaminess to the texture, and plenty of dark ripe fruit character, paired with grip and understated power, opening through to bitter chocolate, sage, liquorice and campfire smoke. Great quality, full of energy and saline kick. Second year with Denis Dubourdieu as consultant, 50% new oak. Simonit and Sirch also began to work on the pruning in the vineyards at this point.
Drink 2024 - 2044
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (February 2024)
A blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon and 29% Merlot.
Fully saturated ruby-purple with inky highlights. Captivating nose of cassis, violet, gunflint and aromatic herbs; this struck me as being very dominated by its cabernet component. Fresh, rich and dense, with palate-staining flavours of dark berries, coffee and cocoa complicated by ink and graphite. Very complex and long, this vintage appears to be a major achievement for Giscours and one of the best wines from this estate in years.
Ian D'Agata, Vinous.com (January 2012)
Deep garnet in colour, the 2010 Giscours slips seductively out of the glass with notions of baked black cherries, mulberries, plum preserves, and hints of cassis, pencil lead, and dried Provence herbs. Medium to full-bodied, the palate totes a fair amount of oak with a sturdy frame of chewy tannins, coming through with a long, fruity finish.
Drink 2020 - 2037
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (March 2020)
Fruit cake, baked plum and bramble fruit. Spicy oak, sweet and fragrant on the palate. Dry, lengthy, satisfying. Traditional but not austere or lean – plenty of generous flavour and supple structure.
Drink 2016 - 2030
Richard Hemming MW, JancisRobinson.com (December 2014)
The 2010 Ch. Giscours is polished, with lots of alluring mocha and licorice notes leading the way, followed by creamy blueberry, blackberry and black cherry fruit. The finish is long and creamy.
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator (March 2011)
Aromas of mint and currants with hints of fresh herbs. Then turns to plum jam. Full body, with well-integrated tannins and pretty fruit. Long and caressing. This is really outstanding.
Better in 2017
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2013)
It is a little unsettling to realize that 2009 and 2010 may be the greatest back-to-back Bordeaux vintages produced in the history of the region. The over-achieving Giscours turned in a great performance in 2010, which possessed an opaque purple colour as well as notes of liquorice, black truffles, sweet blackberry and cassis fruit, flowers and soil undertones. It is very full-bodied and exceptionally opulent, fat and round, but the vintage’s acids, precision, high glycerin, alcohol, and extract are all present. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 25-30 years.
Drink 2013 - 2043
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (May 2011)
The blend is 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
The 2010 Château Giscours is beautiful stuff and has classic Margaux elegance and complexity as well as notable richness and depth. Offering notes of ripe black fruits, smoked earth, freshly sharpened pencils, and tobacco leaf, it’s not massive, but it’s medium to full-bodied and has a focused, balanced mouthfeel, integrated oak, and outstanding length. It’s a quintessential Bordeaux to enjoy any time over the coming 15 years.
Drink 2024 - 2039
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (May 2024)
Bright ruby-red. Cassis, blackberry and liquorice pastille on the nose. Then sweet, juicy and energetic in the mouth, with complex flavours of plum, currant, cedar, tobacco and spices along with a gamey nuance. Firmly built but not hard. Finishes with serious but fine-grained tannins and a note of liquorice. Still a bit strict today, this wine has the structure to repay ageing.
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (July 2013)
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.
Margaux
If Pauillac can be seen as the bastion of ‘traditional’ Red Bordeaux, then Margaux represents its other facet in producing wines that are among Bordeaux’s most sensual and alluring. It is the largest commune in the Médoc, encompassing the communes of Cantenac, Soussans, Arsac and Labaude, in addition to Margaux itself. Located in the centre of the Haut-Médoc, Margaux is the closest of the important communes to the city of Bordeaux.
The soils in Margaux are the lightest and most gravelly of the Médoc, with some also containing a high percentage of sand. Vineyards located in Cantenac and Margaux make up the core of the appelation with the best vineyard sites being located on well-drained slopes, whose lighter soils give Margaux its deft touch and silky perfumes. Further away from the water, there is a greater clay content and the wines are less dramatically perfumed.
Margaux is the most diffuse of all the Médoc appelations with a reputation for scaling the heights with irreproachable wines such as Ch. Margaux and Ch. Palmer, but also plumbing the depths, with too many other châteaux not fulfilling their potential. There has been an upward shift in recent years, but the appellation cannot yet boast the reliability of St Julien. However, the finest Margaux are exquisitely perfumed and models of refinement and subtlety which have few parallels in Bordeaux.
Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Margaux, Ch. Palmer, Ch. Brane-Cantenac, Ch. Rauzan-Ségla , Ch. Dufort-Vivens, Ch. Ferrière, Ch. du Tertre, Ch. Giscours, Ch. d'Angludet.
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.
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Description
Harvest September 27 to October 14.
High levels of Cabernet Sauvignon reflect how well this grape did in the 2016 vintage and replanting in the vineyards, and you start to see the Giscours of today. Beautiful, this, for me, is hugely better than 2009, with creaminess to the texture, and plenty of dark ripe fruit character, paired with grip and understated power, opening through to bitter chocolate, sage, liquorice and campfire smoke. Great quality, full of energy and saline kick. Second year with Denis Dubourdieu as consultant, 50% new oak. Simonit and Sirch also began to work on the pruning in the vineyards at this point.
Drink 2024 - 2044
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (February 2024)
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