Winemaker Notes
The 2020 vintage is the fruit of Chateau Guiraud's expertise in offering a vintage that, despite the small quantity produced, is remarkably seductive. Upon tasting, you will immediately notice the fine tension and the purity that are the result of the extremely rigorous selection of the grapes during the harvest. The botrytis aromas are very fresh and somewhat spicy. The silky texture collides with notes of quince and fresh apricot to provide a conclusion of great refinement.
Blend: 65% Semillon, 35% Sauvignon Blanc
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2020 Guiraud is fabulous. Usually a more opulent wine, the 2020 impresses with its translucent personality. Orange confit, apricot preserves, chamomile and dried flowers all develop in the glass. I very much like the energy here. A classy, impressive wine. –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Wine Enthusiast
A dense and seriously ripe wine, this has concentration without intense botrytis. It is a rich wine with great yellow fruits and lovely acidity to balance at the end.
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Decanter
This is hugely appealing. Fleshy and exotic, with saffron and cinnamon, luscious and rich in a way that is a little atypical for the signature of Guiraud - you feel the concentration of the vintage, although the necessary lift on the finish comes in through white pepper spice, fennel, white pear and passion fruit. 2020 is the 10th vintage to be certified as organic.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
James Suckling
Apricots, honeysuckle, lemons, mango crumble, earl grey and vanilla beans on the nose. Pretty spice notes that keep going, married with fresh zesty undertones. Elegant, even somewhat understated, with a long and vibrant finish. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Bright, juicy and with good freshness, this pushes a mix of yellow apple, pineapple and white peach to the fore, backed by a long elderflower honey note that holds the finish prettily. Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Drink now through 2035.
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.