Giscours is the flagship of Labarde. While firmly grounded on a Third Growth, where does Giscours stand? As the owner said, Giscours is a 'null autre', meaning second to none. But is it an indictment of consumer sovereignty? One cannot say they are good and believe they are good! However, a Labarde shall always need time. Its tannins are firm and austere. It is always a masculine Margaux that absolution needs time to resolve the strong characters.
After 14 years, we are convinced that this bottle of Giscours 2009 may be good enough. The aromatics have retained a reasonable degree of freshness, nuanced and complex. It offers, on the palate, is full-bodied with grainy yet tamed tannins, deep broody dark and red berried/currant fruits, touches of cocoa and a hint of cracked black pepper, leather and a tone of dark chocolate, reflecting the growing season as well as the terroir. Formed from a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot using 50% new oak from seven suppliers, it is still lactic in the finish. Smooth, there is no flabbiness marking the finish, and it offers decent length. Drink it over the next 5-6 years. So it is a wine to savour now.
Scores are high. The tastings and scores are also consistent, such as
RP95 The finest Giscours in my professional career (I said the same thing from barrel), this dense purple wine has a lovely nose of burning embers, charcoal, creme de cassis, new saddle leather and damp, forest floor notes. It is full-bodied, with sweet, well-integrated tannins and a multi-dimensional, almost skyscraper-like mid-palate and finish. With its low acidity and remarkable substance and depth, this gorgeous wine should age beautifully for 20-30 years. Edited.
JS95 Aromas of blueberries, blackberries and flowers. Very beautiful. The entire body, with a solid core of fruit and firm tannins. It is balanced and refined. This bottle is ultra-refined. Best wine from here since 1970. One of the great values of the vintage. Best after 2018. Edited.
Updated: Feb 8, 2023
Quite a fruit-intense example, this bottle gives a good sense of fleshy blackberry and boysenberry in a relatively supple frame. This St Julien type of elegant personality readies for immediate consumption. It remains an attractive quintessential Pauillac well-balanced through using two grapes(72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot, matured in 60% new oak). It gathers momentum in the glass and develops a subtle mint accent. The palate reflects that the nose is medium-bodied with supple, lithe tannin, well-balanced, with long length. Cedary and minty finish. Consistent scores in the range of 93 to 94.
94Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (224), April 2016
There’s an immediate appeal to the nose and palate. Both are bathed in blackberries and dark plums. The tannins are superbly cut and very long and fresh. The oak chimes in with spicy flavors and bolsters plush grape tannins in a harmonious finish. Try from 2022. Edited.
94James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, February 2018
Bright limpid crimson. Quite tense and exciting spiciness on the nose. Rich and ripe. Quite forward but has a good savoury undertow. Lots of energy. Dry but not drying end. A good effort! Nothing forced.
Drink 2024-2040
93 Derek Smedley MW, DerekSmedleyMW.co.uk, April 2016
Christel Spinner, the talented oenologist at Grand-Puy-Lacoste, applies her special touch tothis wine, too. Sourced from sandier soils, it’s often a little lighter in style, but that’s not the case here. The wine has good grip and structure with stylish, toasty oak for support.
Drink: 2020-28
Deep ruby with a tight rim. Lively and fresh with attractive flavours and velvety tannins. Well made, with a bit of extraction with good balance. This bottle is an early-drinking wine but will offer much early-term drinking pleasure—full-bodied wine with an array of alluring flavours ranging from plums and blackberries to cedar. The tamed tannins are still dominating at the moment—moderately long length. She starts drinking fine.
Contrasting scores. RP has yet to score with quite some awards at the 88 to 90 level. Hence it is cheap as a Second Growth of Margaux. However, two insiderd give a relatively high score, for example:
94 Gilbert Gaillard
2011 Vintage Tasted: May 2012
EN PRIMEUR - Deep garnet-red. The profound nose of ripe red fruits with delicate oak and graphite. Rich, full and warm palate intermixing red fruit and oak. Closely integrated, warm, fat and long across the palate. Edited.
94 VertdeVin
2011 Vintage Tasted: Sep 2022
The nose is powerful and precise and offers a friendly power and finesse of grain. There are notes of ripe blackcurrant, crunchy Morello cherry and more slightly violet combined with touches of lily and bergamot, as well as fine points of camphor, spices and a subtle hint of pepper. The palate is fruity and balanced and offers a nice minerality, lovely fruit juiciness, precision, fine chewiness, and a specific purity. On the palate, this wine expresses morello cherry, pulpy/juicy blackcurrant and more slightly crunchy strawberry notes combined with hints of violet, crushed currants, hints liquorice, bergamot, subtle hints of sweet blond tobacco as well as a slight hint of liquorice, a very discreet hint of colas and a subtle hint of a sense of place and saline/grave minerality. The tannins are precise and racy. Good length. A very pretty, fresh and crunchy wine. Edited.
Château Rauzan-Gassies was classified as a second growth in the 1855 Classification of the Médoc and Graves, and like many wines in the appellation. The 28-hectare (70-acre) vineyard is located on gravelly soils, which are typical of the area. Cabernet Sauvignon makes up around two-thirds of plantings, with Merlot and a tiny amount of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot making up the rest. Wines are vinified in modern stainless steel vats, with alcoholic and malolactic fermentations happening simultaneously. Château Rauzan-Gassies typically spends a year in oak barrels, around a quarter of which are new. In the 18th Century, the estate was a part of the vast Rauzan estate, which by 1855 split into châteaux Rauzan-Gassies, Rauzan-Ségla, Desmirail and Marquis de Terme. Since 1945, Rauzan-Gassies has been owned by the Quié family, who also own Bel Orme and Croizet-Bages.
