William Kelly, Robert Parker, April 2022 - 95P The 2019 Giscours has turned out very well in bottle, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet berries, cherries, burning embers, lilac and violets framed by a discreet patina of new oak. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's polished and perfumed, with a velvety, seamless profile and bright animating acids, concluding with a long, resonant finish. Alexandre Van Beek and his team are taking this estate to heights it hasn't hit since the 1970s, and this is another of the great bargains of the 2019 en primeur campaign. Giscours produced some brilliant wines in the past, with a string of notable successes in the 1970s and early 1980s, but then it fell victim to neglect. The predominance of Cabernet Sauvignon in those old vintages, sometimes representing more than 80% of the blend, gradually ceded ground to more productive and facile Merlot; and the estate's reputation declined. When the Albada family acquired Giscours in 1995, all that began to change. Fully 140,000 missing vines were replaced, cultivating the soils was resumed and the winery was renovated. A young Alexander van Beek arrived for harvest in 1995 and ended up staying to oversee the work. And the results today are very exciting indeed. Giscours itself occupies three large gravel domes: one opposite the château itself, the other on the other side of the road and a third inland that hits fully 21 meters above sea level. There's a large park with a river at the heart of the estate, and the team are creating wildlife corridors and hedges to bring life back into the vineyards. Seeded cover crops now protect the soils, and canopies are a touch lower to limit excess sugar accumulation. At harvest itself, vines of different age have been marked out to be harvested separately: an immense task, considering that Giscours has 100 hectares under vine in the Margaux appellation alone. The 2019, however, demonstrates that all the work is worth it: this is the finest Giscours of the new era, and it's well worth seeking out. Winery introduction: Château Giscours, a Grand Cru Classé in 1855, is a wine with a big personality that expresses the expertise of our teams and the full wealth of our terroir in the Margaux appellation. Château Giscours is an elegant, well-structured wine with magnificently bright aromas. It is a wine that develops wonderfully over time, the enjoyment of which is passed down from generation to generation.
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