1971 | Château Giscours | Margaux (Magnum)

The 1971 vintage is showing a very elegant texture, almost creamy, with subtle fruity notes and remarkable balance.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 1971 is an impressively dark-colored wine for the vintage. It is rather robust and chunky, but lacking in polish and finesse. It makes a big palate impression with its dusty, ripe, substantial fruit and weight, but it finishes coarsely. This is a brawny, oafish example of Giscours that is unlikely to ever come into harmony.

Producer Information

Château Giscours is a well-regarded wine estate in the Margaux appellation of the Haut-Médoc region just north of Bordeaux city. It was rated as a third growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification and, since the 1990s, it has moved from being a Merlot-dominant wine to a more long-lived blend, typically of 75 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 25 percent Merlot. The Giscours vineyard is one of the largest on the Left Bank with 165 hectares (407 acres) in total. Of this, 102 hectares (252 acres) falls within the Margaux appellation. This vineyard is planted 60 percent to Cabernet Sauvignon with 32 percent Merlot, 5 percent Cabernet Franc and 3 percent Petit Verdot. The second wine, La Sirène de Giscours, comes from a selection of fruit from the youngest vines. Additionally, a 63-hectare (156-acre) plot, adjacent to Giscours but outside the Margaux boundary, provides the fruit for Le Haut Médoc de Giscours. Château Duthil is a made from a selection of the best Haut-Médoc plots and also vinified at Giscours. The range is completed by Le Rosé de Giscours. Total production across the range is around 350,000 bottles a year. Scandal hit the property in 1998, when a former employee accused management and the new owner, the Dutch businessman Eric Albada-Jelgersma, of blending Haut-Médoc fruit into the 1995 La Sirène to increase its volume, and adding various illegal additives including fruit acids and milk. Legal proceedings dragged on to 2008, but the result of the trial was never made public. In 2018, the estate again made headlines after it was fined for an illegal sugar addition (chaptalization) to a batch of Merlot at the winery, despite receiving (erroneous) local assurances the chaptalization was allowed. Although representatives for the estate said after the ruling they would appeal the fine, no further developments have been made public. Nonetheless, throughout the recent twenty years many improvements in techniques and facilities were made. Château Giscours dates back to 1552, when a wealthy Bordeaux draper named Pierre de Lhomme bought a house called Guyscoutz, extended the lands and planted the first vines. The current neoclassical form of the large château dates from the 19th Century. It is also the home ground of Bordeaux-Giscours Cricket Club, one of the top teams in France.

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