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2016 CHÂTEAU GUIRAUD 1er Cru Classé Sauternes, Lea & Sandeman

CHÂTEAU GUIRAUD

2016 1er Cru Classé Sauternes

Colour White
Origin France, Bordeaux
Village Sauternes
Classification 1er Cru Classé
ABV 14%

The 2016 Guiraud has a very attractive, complex bouquet of lemon curd, orange blossom and light lanolin aromas that gently unfold in the glass. The palate is very well balanced with a spicy opening. This feels concentrated and harmonious, delivering good grip and a tangy marmalade-driven finish that begs you back for another sip. Excellent. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2023 - 2050 Rating: 95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Aug 2020)


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One of the top Sauternes in this report is the 2016 Château Guiraud, a brilliant wine from a more challenging vintage for the Sauternes region. Beautiful, powerful notes of sugared peach, blood orange, caramelized pineapple, and honey all give way to a full-bodied Sauternes that has loads of sweetness and richness, yet good acidity as well. It does everything right and will offer up incredible pleasure over the coming 25-30 years. Drinking range: 2021 - 2051 Rating: 96 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2019)

Among the richest, sweetest and densest of Sauternes this year, this is lush, spicy and concentrated, with quite a bit of toasty oak (often the case when young), 155 grams of residual sugar and exotic fruit flavours of passion fruit and pineapple. Drinking range: 2020 - 2028 Rating: 93 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com

The 2016 Château Guiraud, which had been already released onto the market by proprietor Xavier Planty when I visited, has a very refined bouquet this year: nicely poised with pure botrytised fruit, quite minerally and developing subtle white flower scents with time. The palate is fresh and vibrant with crisp acidity, orange rind and tangerine coming forth with a tang of stem ginger towards the long finish. It will require three or four years in bottle just to meld together, but there is great potential here. Drinking range: 2021 - 2050 Rating: 93-95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)

Château Guiraud

Sauternes Premier Cru 1855 Given that the village has lent its name to the appellation, it seems surprising that only two châteaux in Sauternes were granted Premier Cru status in 1855. When you learn that one of those two was Château d'Yquem, it becomes less surprising. The other was Château Guiraud. The name derives from a Pierre Guiraud (or Guiraut), who purchased the estate in 1766. Today, Guiraud is owned by a consortium - Robert Peugeot, Stephan von Niepperg, Olivier Bernard and Xavier Planty. They bought the estate in 2006 from the Narby family who had already done much work renovating Guiraud over the previous 20 years. There 85ha of vineyard, given over to 65% Semillon and 35% Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented in new wood, before ageing for 2 years. A second wine is produced called Le Dauphin de Château Guiraud, as well as a dry white called G de Guiraud.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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