Château Giscours, 3eme Cru Classé, Margaux, 2023
After a very successful 2022 it's back to reality at Giscours. This feels stringy and meagre with dry, granular tannins. Margaux is often the most challenging appellation to taste when young. This needs to put on some flesh and resolve its angular tannins to warrant a recommendation.
critic reviews
The 2023 Giscours was still in barrel when I re-tasted it at the château a few months after primeur. Very pure in style, this is less reserved than it seemed back then. It's not as complex as the '22, but it has gained in terms of presence and personality. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and just a little more density and power. Sapid and spicy through the finish, the 2023 has developed more elegance, and I've raised my banded score accordingly.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Giscours flies out of the glass with vibrant notes of blackcurrant jelly, kirsch, and black raspberries giving way to hints of lilacs, pencil lead, and mossy tree bark. The medium-bodied palate is super soft and silky, with a well-knit line of soft acidity framing the bright, vibrant, and elegantly styled red and black fruit layers, finishing long and perfumed. This is a very alluring Giscours! The blend is 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc, yield 34 hl/ha, aging in oak barrels, 50% new.
Inky, expertly constructed, fleshy blackberry, pomegranate and cassis fruits, black pepper, sage, rosemary and smoked cumin spice, with lift, nuance and momentum through the palate, clearly an excellent vintage at Giscours, although relatively low 31hl/ha yields.
The 2023 Giscours is one of the real successes of the vintage, unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries and red fruits mingled with hints of undergrowth, violets and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's seamless and concentrated, with a fleshy core of fruit framed by ripe, powdery tannins and succulent acids, concluding with a long, broad finish. It's a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc.