Having made it as a third growth in the 1855 classification, Chateau Giscours began a period of graceful decline that lasted almost a century and a half, before being arrested by the ownership of Nicolas Tari and his money. Even then things did not go smoothly with someone putting oak chips into the second wine Sirene de Giscours in the late nineties.

That is in the past, however and so moving on, we find Giscours under new owner Dutchman Eric Albada Jelgersma finally achieving the sort of quality that a third growth with this sort of terroir should. Yields are low for Bordeaux and aspirations are high. Grapes are sorted in both vineyard and at cellar door and the wines are becoming more and more consistent. (CW 03/06/10)