Chateau Giscours Chateau Giscours (Grand Cru Classe) 2015

Château Giscours has constantly reinvented itself to survive the centuries.

Pierre de Lhomme, Marc Promis, Jean-Pierre Pescatore, Edouard Cruse, Nicolas Tari and now the Albada Jelgersma family – all ambitious and visionary estate owners who were passionate about pulling together the estate’s land and giving this vineyard, named a Third Grand Cru Classé in 1855, a reputation for excellence.

Dry and meagre gravel hilltops with slight variations give Giscours wines their structure and elegance.

This exceptional terroir suits our vines, which offer up the best of themselves under the influence of the oceanic climate.

On these arid, eroded soils formed of alluvial deposits, Garonne gravel transported from the Pyrenees during the Quaternary period, topography formed in the shape of what are known in the Médoc as ‘croupes gravelleuses’, or gravel hilltops. They allow excess water to drain off and enable Cabernet Sauvignon, the primary grape variety, to express itself to the full.

Giscours has three major hills, and blending these together is what gives Giscours wines their power and complexity:

Grand Poujeau & Petit Poujeau

To the west of the estate, reaching up 21 metres, Grand Poujeau is made up almost entirely of peyrosols. Brought here by the Garonne and the Dordogne, this beautiful gravel – of remarkable size – forms warm soils that are particularly well suited to Cabernet Sauvignon and enable high levels of ripeness.

Bel Air

This 12-metre hilltop has a high proportion of brunisols (gravelly sand to sandy gravel), considered to be a cooler terroir that likes hot and dry years.

The Giscours plateau, known as Cantelaude

At 17 metres, this is a clever combination of the two previous terroirs, providing fullness and depth to Merlot but also beautiful complexity to Cabernet Sauvignon.

On its hilltops, the vines’ root systems reach down up to ten or so metres, drawing the water they need in dry periods from subsurface layers of the soil. The grape varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot are therefore protected from extremes of climate.

2015 started with a warm spring with low precipitations, followed by a warm and dry summer which led to an early vegetative period.

Nevertheless, grapes have continued their maturation process in great conditions, thanks to rainfalls at the end of the summer.

The 2015 vintage has all the qualities we particularly love in a Château Giscours : freshness, silky tannins, structure and voluptuousness brought by the Cabernets.

A legendary vintage full of energy.

Packed with notes of flowers, sweet, red fruits, tobacco leaf, cherries, and plums, this gorgeous wine is rich, lush, fresh, round, and complex. Yes, it is still a baby. But there is so much going on here, that it is impossible not to finish the bottle with dinner, even at this early stage of development. Drink from 2025-2050.                 

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

Awards:

97/100 Wine Enthusiast

93/100 Wine Spectator