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Wine Description
The Story
The annual production for the first growth is about 100.000 bottles. Some really bad years (1991 and 1993) No classified growth has been produced.The first growth is produced from a 85ha of Sauternes appellation vines.
Only Semillon (65%) and Sauvignon (35%) are planted at Guiraud with a pruning "à cots" or "in fan" for the Semillons and long branches for the Sauvignons. The density of plantation is 6660 vine per ha (Root stock Riparia 33 09, 101 14,161 49). The average age of the vines is 35-40 years. The average yield is 12hl/ha. The maximum yield allowed by the appellation is 25hl/ha.
Harvest is only done hand picking by successive waves through the vineyard (2 to 7 selections), picking only the botrytised berries. A minimum of potential alcohol (20°) must be reached before starting the harvest. The fermentation is made in new oak barrels over a period of three weeks to two months. Different batches are fermentated until they reach their own equilibrium which depends upon their selection. Chaptalisation, cryoextraction and any other techniques used to enrich the wine are absolutely prohibited. The aging in barrels lasts 24 months.
Wine Information
"A wine praised by the medias to the sky, everything is settled" (Xavier Planty)
This vintage is outstanding, the nose is complex, rich ; youll find dried fruits, wax; vanilla, exotic fruits; cinnamon, ginger, crystallized fruits, spices and flowers, botrytis, citrus peel, hazelnut, apple, apricot aromas.
The mouth is also incredible: syrupy and full bodied, long and wide, this well balanced wine, with apricot and prune aromas, has a long future ahead of it.
The " Noble House of Bayle " used to be estate's name when it belonged to the Mons Saint-Poly family. A notarial deed dated 22 February 1766 reveals that Pierre Guiraud, a Bordeaux merchant of Protestant faith, bought it for 53,000 livres.
On his death in 1799 his son Louis succeeded him. It was under Louis Guiraud that the estate was saved from a severe devaluation which had begun in 1793, becoming a famous château well known for its wine.
On his death in 1837, his son Pierre-Aman inherited a well-established property, with a value estimated at 250,00 livres.
Within 80 years and three generations, various families succeeded each other as owners of the estate. The legend was born in1855 when Château Guiraud became a Premier Grand Cru de Sauternes.
During a dinner in early 2006, Robert Peugeot, an industrialist, and three wine makers, Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier, Stephan Von Neipperg of Château Canon La Gaffelière and Xavier Planty, the estate's director, decided to buy Guiraud. They signed a purchase contract on 20 July 2006 thereby uniting their shared passion for wine, gastronomy, nature and hunting.
Château Guiraud
Area: 85 ha
Soil: 80% sandy gravel and clayey gravel for the remainder
Sub-soil: deep translucent sand, pure gravel with some banks of red clay and limestone marl,bands of limestone with oyster shells or red and white clays
Density: 6,600 vines/ha
Rootstock: Riparia, 33 09, 101 14, 161 49
Average age of vines: 35-40 years
Harvests: uniquely by hand, with successive selective pickings (2-6 pickings) of botrytised
grapes. A minimum potential alcohol level of 20° is required to begin harvesting
Fermentation: 90% in new barrels, 10% in barrels that have already aged one wine,for a period of three weeks to two months
Maturation: in barrels, on fine lees, for 18 to 24 months depending on the year, with racking every three months
Production: 100,000 bottles of Château Guiraud
30,000 bottles of Dauphin de Guiraud, Château Guiraud’s second wine 50,000 bottles of G de Château Guiraud, dry white Bordeaux
Owners: Robert Peugeot for FFP, Stephan von Neipperg, Olivier Bernard and Xavier Planty
Vintage 1990
Early, uniform flowering, a hot but unspectacular summer and an exceptionally hot period at the end of August 1990 and the first half of September. It was this heat that allowed the record harvest not only to fully ripen, but also to concentrate the fruit. Harvesting began on September 14 and was completed before the start of heavy rains on October 2. Another reason for the success of the vintage was that most châteaux had invested in their cellars and were able to work with such a large and hot harvest. It was now possible to control fermentation temperatures better than in previous warm vintages, such as 1947. The grapes produced wines with such a high level of natural alcohol that chaptalization became unnecessary. They showed deep color, high and unusually sweet tannin levels and better acidity than expected, as well as great concentration of fruit. The hype was great, particularly thanks to the advent of new wine magazines - this was the vintage that cemented Robert Parker's reputation. Prices rose quickly and haven't looked back since. I remember that all Premiers Crus (including Pétrus) were offered to end consumers for around 50 euros en primeur in 1983.
The scene of the arrival of the 1990 vintage was quite different. There was a surplus of very good to great wine on the market – for the first time, there was talk of three great vintages in succession. This led most châteaux to drop their prices by around 20% from their 1989 prices, even though the quality was exceptional. There had been a steady increase in prices during the 1980s, but they had now more or less returned to the opening prices of the 1982s. This was again a record harvest, but as most châteaux had already introduced a "second wine" and were more selective regarding quality, there was actually less wine bottled under the name "Grand Vin" than in 1982.
We have been following these two vintages since they were young, as they were both precocious and easy to drink from the start. The best wines from both vintages are spectacular, but the overall quality is much higher in 1990. Here, the wines have been equally successful on both sides of the river, and even the small châteaux have produced something special. We always found most Right Bank 1982s to be overly alcoholic and lacking in structure; Indeed, many age quickly.