2010 Château Giscours, Margaux, Bordeaux

A blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon and 29% Merlot.

Fully saturated ruby-purple with inky highlights. Captivating nose of cassis, violet, gunflint and aromatic herbs; this struck me as being very dominated by its cabernet component. Fresh, rich and dense, with palate-staining flavours of dark berries, coffee and cocoa complicated by ink and graphite. Very complex and long, this vintage appears to be a major achievement for Giscours and one of the best wines from this estate in years.

The 2010 Ch. Giscours is polished, with lots of alluring mocha and licorice notes leading the way, followed by creamy blueberry, blackberry and black cherry fruit. The finish is long and creamy.

Aromas of mint and currants with hints of fresh herbs. Then turns to plum jam. Full body, with well-integrated tannins and pretty fruit. Long and caressing. This is really outstanding.

Better in 2017

Harvest September 27 to October 14.

High levels of Cabernet Sauvignon reflect how well this grape did in the 2016 vintage and replanting in the vineyards, and you start to see the Giscours of today. Beautiful, this, for me, is hugely better than 2009, with creaminess to the texture, and plenty of dark ripe fruit character, paired with grip and understated power, opening through to bitter chocolate, sage, liquorice and campfire smoke. Great quality, full of energy and saline kick. Second year with Denis Dubourdieu as consultant, 50% new oak. Simonit and Sirch also began to work on the pruning in the vineyards at this point.

Drink 2024 - 2044

The blend is 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

The 2010 Château Giscours is beautiful stuff and has classic Margaux elegance and complexity as well as notable richness and depth. Offering notes of ripe black fruits, smoked earth, freshly sharpened pencils, and tobacco leaf, it’s not massive, but it’s medium to full-bodied and has a focused, balanced mouthfeel, integrated oak, and outstanding length. It’s a quintessential Bordeaux to enjoy any time over the coming 15 years.

Drink 2024 - 2039

Deep garnet in colour, the 2010 Giscours slips seductively out of the glass with notions of baked black cherries, mulberries, plum preserves, and hints of cassis, pencil lead, and dried Provence herbs. Medium to full-bodied, the palate totes a fair amount of oak with a sturdy frame of chewy tannins, coming through with a long, fruity finish.

Drink 2020 - 2037

Fruit cake, baked plum and bramble fruit. Spicy oak, sweet and fragrant on the palate. Dry, lengthy, satisfying. Traditional but not austere or lean – plenty of generous flavour and supple structure.

Drink 2016 - 2030

It is a little unsettling to realize that 2009 and 2010 may be the greatest back-to-back Bordeaux vintages produced in the history of the region. The over-achieving Giscours turned in a great performance in 2010, which possessed an opaque purple colour as well as notes of liquorice, black truffles, sweet blackberry and cassis fruit, flowers and soil undertones. It is very full-bodied and exceptionally opulent, fat and round, but the vintage’s acids, precision, high glycerin, alcohol, and extract are all present. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 25-30 years.

Drink 2013 - 2043

Bright ruby-red. Cassis, blackberry and liquorice pastille on the nose. Then sweet, juicy and energetic in the mouth, with complex flavours of plum, currant, cedar, tobacco and spices along with a gamey nuance. Firmly built but not hard. Finishes with serious but fine-grained tannins and a note of liquorice. Still a bit strict today, this wine has the structure to repay ageing.