Winemaker Notes
A great wine made with the grey fungus Botrytis cinerea (known as noble rot), it boasts a floral freshness, exotic notes and intensely sweet flavors with a dense, well-balanced palate. Delicately aromatic.
Blend: 66% Semillon, 27% Sauvignon Blanc, 7% Sauvignon Gris
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon that will spend 18 months in 90% new French oak, the 2025 Château Guiraud has a beautiful medium gold hue as well as a ripe, powerful and sweet perfume of grilled peach, orange marmalade, ginger, and minty flowers. It's rich and full-bodied on the palate, with a concentrated mouthfeel, tons of sweetness nicely balanced by clean acidity, and outstanding length.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Vinous
The 2025 Guiraud is well defined on the nose, with plenty of botrytised fruit, hints of saffron and apricot blossom, quite nuanced compared with some of its peers. The palate is well balanced, with a tangy, mellifluous entry. Bright acidity counters the richness of this Guiraud, a touch of spice towards the lingering and powerful finish that fans out with style. This is a great Guiraud from winemaker Sandrine Garbay. –Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Decanter
Sweet and luscious, a lovely lick of pineapple and mango straight away – ripe, sweet, but also salty the two giving a nice interplay between power and concentration and brightness and energy. Grippy and fun with an approachable element as well as being signature Sauternes from a great vintage. Sweet candied lemons, pineapple chunks and wet stones. Yummy.
Barrel Sample: 96 -
James Suckling
Elegant and balanced, with quince, pastry and spice aromas. Medium-bodied with a silky texture. Refined and charming, with controlled sweetness and a succulent spice note bringing vitality toward the finish.
Barrel Sample: 94-95
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.