1921 Château Guiraud

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 96 points

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  11/24/2021 - Cailles wrote: 96 Points

  Legends only: 15 Bordeaux & 2 Heitz MV Magnums: Three Sauternes magnums to finish this legends tasting. On paper, the Yquem 1967 (rated 94 pts) should have carried it home but the Guiraud 1921 (rated 96 pts) and 1896 (rated 98 pts) outshined it today. Yquem 1967 is among the legendary vintages for this wine but it’s a controversial vintage too. For some it is too sweet and slightly cloying, some others say that there are two different bottlings and only one is really great - the bottles that are quite dark today. Despite the dark colour of our bottle, it felt too sweet at first and only with 30+ more minutes in the glass it became better. My guess is this would have needed several hours in the decanter to fully shine. Both Guirauds were dark as motor oil, full of sweetness but with a high acidity to balance it and both showed hyper intense and incredibly complex. The 1921 got some points deducted as it didn’t have the perfect balance with the acidity too prominent on the mid palate and finish. The 1896 had a beautiful harmony of sweetness and freshness and was even more complex but that intensity was almost too much to handle for me (like an old PX or Port). But anyway, all three bottles were a lot of fun to drink.
  
  TN: Almost brown color. A touch oily from the looks. Medium intense nose with malty notes, herbs and balck tea, licorice, spices. Quinte intense and very precise. On the palate this is incredibly dense and powerful, with lots of malty aromas, nuts, citrus, lime, orange zest, asian spices, lots of coffee, prunes and some curry notes. This is very fresh but the acidity is not perfectly integrated and towards the end of the mid palate and in the finish, it is too pronounced. Anyway, this is a fascinating wine with new aromas popping up with every sip. 96 to 97 pts.

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