CHATEAU GISCOURS 3eme Grand Cru Classe, Margaux 2022 Bottle

Description

The 2022 Château Giscours is a truly impressive wine, celebrated with accolades including 96 points from Decanter and 97-98 points from James Suckling. Decanter praises its gorgeous clarity and purity, noting its gentle yet compelling complexity, fresh and juicy character, and textured tannins that provide structure and density. The wine feels powerful yet refined, showcasing a cool minerality that enhances its vibrancy. James Suckling echoes this sentiment, highlighting its full-bodied yet agile profile with precise, integrated tannins, exuding beauty and length. The Wine Advocate awarded it 94-96+ points, appreciating its aromas of cherries, dark berries, and forest floor, along with a muscular, layered palate. With nearly 60% of the blend coming from old vines, this vintage promises exceptional depth and ageing potential, making it a must-have for collectors.

*****

DECANTER 96 points
Drinking Window: 2028 - 2049 - A seriously impressive and beguiling Giscous in 2022 and one of the most elegant. A remarkable wine with gorgeous clarity and purity and just the most gentle seduction, even more so because it really doesn't feel as if it's trying too hard yet still delivering depth and complexity. Fresh and lifted, fragrant and so juicy but with textured tannins that give both the weight, structure and density to the quite bright, tangy, vibrant fruit. Nicely composed, feels quite powerful yet restrained and finessed offering lots of immediate drinking appeal but with a serious backbone that suggests long ageing too. Elegant, fineseed, subtle confidence with such cool minerality that gives freshness all the way through. It's not the most dense, or fleshy, but so refined. A compelling wine. Possible upscore in bottle. 3% Cabernet Franc completes the blend. 3.70pH. A yield of 27hl/ha, the lowest ever. No Sirene de Giscours this year. 100% grand vin. Ageing 17 months, 50% new oak. 10-15% press wine. Tasted twice.

JAMES SUCKLING 97-98 Points
11 Apr, 2023 – This is a big move forward for Giscours. Full-bodied yet agile and fresh with tannins that are precise and integrated, with great beauty and length. Well-structured and vivid. Extremely fine yet defined tannins, and then it opens like a butterfly.

THE WINE ADVOCATE (94 - 96+) points
With the 2022 Giscours, this estate takes another step up, delivering a deep and characterful wine redolent of cherries, dark berries, violets, peony and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, broad shouldered and layered, it's deep and elegantly muscular, with impressive concentration, abundant but refined tannins and a structural authority reminiscent of the great Giscours vintages of the 1970s. Why is it so good? There are many reasons, but one is the high proportion of old vines—almost 60% of the blend deriving from vines that are over 50 years old—in a vintage that favored vines with deep, well-established root systems. Another is the increasing precision of harvesting at this address: Giscours's old vines are frequently co-planted with younger replacements that have filled any gaps in the ranks over the years; so, blocks are now picked in two or three passages instead of all at once, with the younger vines picked first.

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ABOUT CHATEAU GISCOURS
Château Giscours, a 3ème Grand Cru Classé from the 1855 classification, is a historic Margaux estate where heritage and modernity converge to produce wines of poise and longevity. Set within expansive parkland on the gravelly rises typical of Margaux, the property benefits from excellent drainage and a temperate, maritime influenced climate that favours Cabernet Sauvignon while allowing Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to contribute complexity and aromatic breadth. The vineyards are managed parcel by parcel, with attention to rootstock, vine age and soil variation, yields are controlled to ensure concentration and clarity of expression, and sustainable practices underpin both vineyard health and fruit quality.

In the winery, traditional savoir faire is combined with contemporary precision. Grapes are subject to meticulous sorting before fermentation in temperature controlled vats, where careful maceration regimes extract balanced tannin and flavour. After fermentation, élevage takes place in French oak, a proportion of which is new each vintage to provide structure and subtle spice without overwhelming varietal purity. The estate’s historic cellars and restored château set the scene for winemaking that respects lineage while embracing technological improvements aimed at consistency and finesse.

The Grand Vin of Giscours typically displays Margaux’s signature perfume, lifted floral notes, red and black berry fruit and delicate spice, framed by a supple refined tannic structure that allows the wine to evolve gracefully over years. Secondary cuvées and occasional single parcel selections offer earlier approachability while reflecting the estate’s stylistic emphasis on elegance and balance. Over recent decades, investment in vine replanting, clonal selection and sorting facilities has sharpened the estate’s quality profile, reinforcing its reputation among the Médoc’s established names.

Beyond the bottle, Château Giscours presents a cultivated estate experience, its parkland, historic architecture and cellars speak to continuity and stewardship. Attentive to terroir, respectful of tradition and committed to measured innovation, Giscours continues to articulate Margaux’s refined character, producing wines that marry aromatic finesse with the structural depth and ageing potential expected of a classified growth.