Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pretty notes of quince, honeyed orange, white flowers, and apricot-like notes all emerge from the 2019 Château Guiraud, which is medium to full-bodied and has a terrific sense of purity, a focused, elegant texture, and a great finish. Developing more and more complexity with time in the glass, it delivers an incredibly precise, elegant texture that keeps you coming back.
Barrel Sample:94-96 -
James Suckling
Acacia honey, apricots, peaches, white tea, lemons and bergamot on the nose. This is sweet, agile and bright with a succulent, tangy citrus character. A nimble, zestier expression of Sauternes. From organically grown grapes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale lemon-gold in color, the 2019 Guiraud springs from the glass with vivacious scents of lemon marmalade, orange blossoms, pink grapefruit and fresh pineapple with hints of candied ginger and musk perfume plus a waft of beeswax. The palate delivers concentrated citrus and dried pineapple flavors with apricot and spicy sparks, lifted by a lively line of freshness, finishing satisfyingly sweet and perfumed.
Barrel Sample:92-94 -
Wine Spectator
Distinctive, with the forward apricot, peach and quince profile of the vintage but with extra acacia, honeysuckle and heather notes, which add lift and length through the nicely defined finish. Although unctuous, this has some drive to carry it along nicely. Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Best from 2023.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Sweet and unctuous but delightfully charming, the finest Sauternes typically express flavors of exotic dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, dried citrus peel, honey or ginger and a zesty beam of acidity.
Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle are the grapes of Sauternes. But Sémillon's susceptibility to the requisite noble rot makes it the main variety and contributor to what makes Sauternes so unique. As a result, most Sauternes estates are planted to about 80% Sémillon. Sauvignon is prized for its balancing acidity and Muscadelle adds aromatic complexity to the blend with Sémillon.
Botrytis cinerea or “noble rot” is a fungus that grows on grapes only in specific conditions and its onset is crucial to the development of the most stunning of sweet wines.
In the fall, evening mists develop along the Garonne River, and settle into the small Sauternes district, creeping into the vineyards and sitting low until late morning. The next day, the sun has a chance to burn the moisture away, drying the grapes and concentrating their sugars and phenolic qualities. What distinguishes a fine Sauternes from a normal one is the producer’s willingness to wait and tend to the delicate botrytis-infected grapes through the end of the season.