Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
Learn More About Chateau Guiraud Sauternes through its Reviews
2020 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
A blend of 65% Semillon, and 35% Sauvignon Blanc.
97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
Tightly structured and with its impressive balance between sweetness and a taut texture, this wine is obviously set for some considerable aging. The dry core of botrytis balances its density and its dark marmalade flavors. This wine has a great future.
95 Pointz James Suckling
Spicy and intense with dried apple, peach, and some stone character. It’s medium-bodied and sweet, yet fresh and vivid.
95 Pointz 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.
94 Pointz 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.
2019 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
95 Pointz James Suckling
There’s purity and brightness to this with dried-peach, lemon and apple character and a fine line of acidity running through the center palate. Spicy finish. Balanced and bright.
94 Pointz 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.
2018 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
No Wine Produced
2017 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
Ripe, botrytized fruit currently dominates this wine with its rich concentration. It is a full and liquorous wine that will age for many years. Drink from 2025.
95 Pointz James Suckling
This is very sweet and spicy with lots of dried lemons and pineapple as well as mangoes. Full body, a dense palate and a flavorful finish. Phenolic and chewy.
95 Pointz Wine Spectator
Lively, featuring orange peel, white peach, almond cream and apricot flavors that stay juicy and brightly defined. Elegant overall, with power in reserve.
94 Pointz Decanter
Silky and concentrated, this is one of the successes of the appellation for me. It has lovely zest and zip, with touches of candied ginger and a fresh lift on the finish. It manages to give shade and light more than most in the vintage but is just a little shorter than in some previous years. Very good quality, reminiscent of the 2009.
94 Pointz Vinous
The 2017 Guiraud is one of the more bold, unctuous wines of the year. Orange marmalade, apricot jam, honey, flowers and sweet spices fill out the wine’s unctuous frame effortlessly. Beautifully textured and ample on the palate, with tremendous resonance, has so much to offer. It will especially appeal to readers who appreciate the richer side of Sauternes.
93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2017 Guiraud gives notes of baked apples, crème brûlée and preserved mandarin peel with touches of crushed rocks and fungi. It delivers great elegance in the mouth with loads of spicy apple and savory flavors, finishing on an earthy note.
2016 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
This wine is hugely rich while having wonderful acidity at its end. Dense botrytis and a powerful structure go along with the honey and marmalade flavors. It will certainly age well and long.
95 Pointz James Suckling
A full-bodied young Sauternes with lots of rich sliced cooked apples and pears. All the same, this remains spicy and energetic with an abundance of dried mushrooms, walnuts, and almonds on the finish. Botrytis character comes through nicely already here.
95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
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 botrytized 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.
91 Pointz Wine Spectator
This delivers a rather solid punch of glazed peach and mango flavors, with notes of white ginger and pear chutney on the juicy finish. Approachable, but no real rush. Best from 2021 through 2032.
2015 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
97 Pointz James Suckling
This is really something. I have never tasted a Guiraud like this. This is full-bodied yet so fresh and incredibly crisp and lively. Spicy and energetic. Fantastic acidity!
96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2015 Guiraud, tasted on two occasions, has a sumptuous bouquet with scents of wild honey, apricot, and a faint smear of marmalade. The palate is fresh and tensile on the entry, brimming with energy with impressive energy towards the blood orange and quince-tinged finish. This is a stylish, suave Guiraud that should age beautifully in bottle.
96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
This wine is packed with dry botrytis flavor, but also a bright freshness. Together they give an obviously sweet wine good structure as well as ripeness. The tension between the fruit and the mineral texture will allow this wine to age for many years.
95 Poinzs Wine Spectator
Intense, with candied lemon peel, glazed yellow apple and honey notes streaming through, picking up mirabelle plum and papaya accents through the finish, which is carried by a buried racy streak. This has a good bright feel overall. Best from 2020 through 2040.
93 Pointz Decanter
The relatively high level of Sauvignon Blanc is doing its bit to give precision and poise to the flavours here. Caramel runs through the mid-palate, lending richness and intensity, but it remains a restrained wine at all times.
93 Pointz Vinous
The 2015 Guiraud appears to have acquired quite a bit of body during its aging. Rich and deep in the glass, but with lovely nuance, it offers tons of immediacy. Orange peel, pineapple, mint, honey, chamomile and sweet French oak notes are nicely pushed forward. Best of all, the 2015 is ready to provide pleasure with minimal cellaring.
Bonus Reviews
Jancis Robinson
17+/20 Pointz
Brownish tinge to the deep gold. Complex nose – many layers of intrigue. Big and very sweet. But with a certain majesty about it. Really quite a king in terms of structure. Lots of acidity on the finish but only after massive weight.
2014 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
95 Pointz James Suckling
The lush mango and papaya nose lead into a wonderfully rich and concentrated palate, which also has bright acidity that really lights the whole thing up and pulls your hand back to the glass for more! Drink or hold.
95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The Chateau Guiraud 2014 has a perfumed bouquet with clear honey, beeswax, and honeysuckle aromas that are well defined. The palate is fresh and taut on the entry: good tension and focus here, very harmonious which gently builds in the mouth towards a satisfying marmalade and quince-driven finish. This is a finely crafted Guiraud that will be a class act.
95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
Already beautifully balanced, this wine is intense, rich and full of layered acidity and concentrated honey flavors. It’s ripe, opulent and dense, with spice notes and acidity highlighting its rich core. Drink from 2024.
95 Pointz Wine Spectator
Not shy, with unctuous dried apricot, peach and tangerine fruit flavors, augmented with ginger, bitter orange and bitter almond notes that add tension. Expressive, with a floral twinge on the finish imparting lift. Best from 2020 through 2040.
93 Pointz Decanter
Tropical and orchard fruit are lifted by spicy botrytis notes, crystallized ginger, and lemon verbena. Balanced and refined, yet bigger than usual but remarkably fresh thanks to vibrant acidity.
93 Pointz Vinous
The 2014 Guiraud is another of the richer, more honeyed wines of the vintage. Candied orange peel, mint, wild flowers and mango are some of the notes that meld together in an unctuous yet mid-weight Sauternes built on texture and resonance.
Bonus Review
Jancis Robinson
Relatively deep gold. Lightly cheesy nose and then massive sweetness on the palate. Really full and impressive. Long and full but with freshness on the finish. Interesting!
2013 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
A blend of 65% Semillon, and 35% Bauvignon Blanc.
96 Pointz Wine Spectator
This gorgeous Sauternes is still really tight, with racy floral and green plum edges along the core flavors of white peach, mirabelle plum, melon and green fig, but there’s stunning length, with a rapier of minerality that matches the sweetness step for step on the long, quinine-infused finish. Built for the long haul. Best from 2018 through 2038.
95 Pointz James Suckling
Extremely intense aromas of dried mushroom, flower petals with pineapples, and apricots. Full body, medium-sweet, and a fantastic intensity of botrytis. Very structured and rich. A classic-styled Sauternes. Better in 2018.
92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2013 Guiraud has a generous bouquet of rich honeyed fruit interlaced with quince and hints of marmalade, though I would like to see more mineralite and tension by the time of bottling. The palate is well-balanced with a spice-tinged entry, touches of Seville orange and mandarin emerging with time. There is good depth here, fine density with plenty of sinew toward the saline-tinged finish. Range: 90-92
2012 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
No Vintage Produced
2011 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
99 PointzJames Suckling
This wine has exceptional clarity, balance, and freshness, with lots of spicy botrytis character. Full body, medium-sweet, and a crisp finish. It’s racy and refined. What’s impressive is the intensity of noble rot that makes the wine feel almost dry. This is the greatest wine ever made here. Made from organic grapes. Try in 2017, but already delicious to drink.
97 Pointz Wine Spectator #12 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2014
A large-scale version, with seamlessly layered notes of almond cream, apricot, ginger, mango, piecrust, papaya and toasted hazelnut. The long, spice-infused finish shows ample depth, echoing with an enticing tarte Tatin note. Best from 2016 through 2035.
95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
The first impression is of the dry botrytis that has infused the wine. Then comes the acidity and crisp lemon flavor. Gradually, ripe marmalade and fragrant honey come out along with acidity. It’s a fascinating, complex wine worthy of a wait. Drink from 2019.
93 Pointz Decanter
Discreet apricot and mandarin nose. Find attack of freshness and purity. Silky and intense With fine acidity to lift of fruit. Needs time to develop complexity.Fine potential and good length.Drinking window 2016 to 2045.
93 Pointz Stephen Tanzer International Wine Cellar
Bright yellow gold. Deep aromas of lime, peach, quince, minerals, menthol and saffron are complicatedby tangy botrytis tones. Ripe creamy flavors of peach, lime and lemon verbena show noteworthy sweetness and power, with harmonious acidity providing lift. This very rich, textured wine coats the palate with tropical fruit and mineral flavors that linger impressively on the back end enlivened by a brisk citrus element. This stellar Guiraud, which strikes me as being Richer and deeper than the 2010. It is still very young and Will improve with age.
92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Sauternes 2011 horizontal tasting. After Yquem and Doisy-Védrines, the Château Guiraud 2011 seems a little muted on the nose, but that is not fair because it is well defined and very focused, gradually unfurling to reveal scents of honey, orange blossom and quince. The palate is well balanced with a fine line of acidity. This is a more understated Sauternes, harmonious and nonchalant in style, but don’t be fooled because there is great tension, delineation and poise on the finish, the fruit seamlessly bound with the new oak. This appears to have gained elegance and complexity in bottle, ergo my higher score.
2010 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Reviews
96 Pointz James Suckling
Ripe lemon peel and orange. Some honey and vanilla with loads of new wood. Dense and very sweet on the palate with nice pure fruit and firm tannins from the oak that still needs time to soften. This Sauternes shows a wonderful fruit and excellent potential but needs time.
93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Tasted as part of a vertical held at the chateau. The 2010 is more Zen-like on the nose compared to the 2009 – more minerality coming through, tense and citric. The palate offers surprising viscosity on the entry with a fine bead of acidity. There is plenty of apricot and dried honey. It has a lovely caressing texture, although there is still some new oak to absorb on the vanilla-scented finish. This has great potential. Drink 2019-2035. Tasted April 2013.
93 Pointz Wine Enthusiast
There is a wonderful balance to this wine. It has ripe tropical fruit flavors that are spiced with ginger and lemon zest. At the same time, there is a fine structure with a botrytis core and freshness from pineapple acidity.
93 Pointz Wine Spectator
A thick, unctuous style, with marzipan, dried pineapple, mango and dried guava notes leading to a good bolt of toasted almond and pie crust on the finish. A muscular, well-stuffed version that will need some time to settle in. Best from 2015 through 2030.
91 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar
Yellow-gold. Initially, inexpressive nose opens slowly with air to hint at peach nectar and pear, along with hints of guava, mango, and caramel. Bright, dense, and juicy, with strongly oak-influenced flavors similar to the aromas. Finishes pure and long, with bright pepper and honey nuances. The harvest began on September 20 and ran through November 2; the third and fourth tries out of six were the main ones. The high presence of sauvignon is typical of Guiraud, as 35% of its vineyard is planted with this variety; the average in Sauternes is closer to 15%.