Chateau Giscours 2022

JAMES SUCKLING: "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."

DECANTER: "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."

FALSTAFF: "Tiefdunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Zart tabakig, feine Kräuterwürze, ein Hauch von Cassis und Herzkirschen, mineralisch, kandierte Veilchen im Hintergrund. Stoffig, elegant, schwarze Kirsche, Brombeeren, integrierte, elegante Tannine, frisch und lange anhaftend, feine Süße im Abgang, zeigt das ganze Potenzial des Terroirs von Giscours."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Violets, roses and lilies merge with its array of spices, black cherries, black plums and black raspberries on the nose. Silky, fresh, and focused on its tannins. The wine focuses on its structure, balance, and refinement. Supple, and creamy, the finish displays its richness, ripe, deep fruits and energy in every lingering sip. The wine is a blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, 13.6% ABV, pH 3.75. Harvesting took place September 1 to September 29. Yields were 27 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2027-2055."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "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."

WEINWISSER: "64 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 % Merlot, 3 % Petit Verdot, 3 % Cabernet Franc. Delikates Bouquet, frischer Schattenmorellensaft, getrockneter Thymian, roter Johannisbeernektar und zartes Fliederparfüm. Am komplexen Gaumen mit seidiger Textur, balancierter Rasse, engmaschigem Tanningerüst und durchtrainiertem Körper. Im konzentrierten, langanhaltenden Finale Wildkirsche, dunkle Schokolade und Graphit gepaart mit edler Salznote. Es wurde dieses Jahr kein Zweitwein produziert. 2030 – 2052."

JEB DUNNUCK: "Clearly one of the finest vintages from this château, the 2022 Château Giscours reveals a dense purple hue to go with beautiful Cabernet-driven aromatics of smoky blue fruits, iron, lead pencil, and spring flowers, as well as an almost marine-like character developing with time in the glass. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has silky, perfectly integrated tannins, a great mid-palate, and outstanding length. It's a serious, age-worthy, incredibly impressive wine in the making."

LISA PERROTTI-BROWN: „A blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, and 3% Cabernet Franc, the 2022 Giscours has a pH of 3.7 and 13.6% alcohol. It has a deep garnet-purple color and bursts with notes of baked black plums, warm cassis, and blackberry preserves, giving way to subtle suggestions of sassafras, roses, and Sichuan pepper. The delicately played medium-bodied palate is soft-spoken and refreshing, featured very fine, silt-like tannins and seamless freshness to frame the subtle red and black berry layers, finishing on a mineral note. If you love blockbusters, look elsewhere, this is all about grace. Note that no second wine (La Sirène de Giscours) was made in 2022 and the yield for Giscours was just 27 hl/ha."

VINUM: "Zurückhaltende, viel versprechende Aromatik; beginnt ungemein fruchtig, geschmeidig und saftig, entwickelt gemächlich tragende Struktur und Tiefe, endet lang auf sehr fruchtigen Noten; stilvoll, hervorragend gemacht, sich selber treu."