Community Tasting Notes 1

• Cailles wrote: 98 points

  November 24, 2021 - 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 black color. The nose is not that expressive but the palate is. It shows incredibly dense, incredibly complex, with a very high sweetness and at the same time it is extremely fresh. Finely structured and textured, an explosion like you hardly ever experience one. Coffee, malt, herbs, spices, lime and citrus, nutty notes, licorice, smoke, lots of saffron, black tea, caramel all very well defined and hyper intense. Somehow this is too much to handel for me. Enjoy with caution. 97 to 98 pts.

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 1896
• Type White - Sweet/Dessert
• Producer Château Guiraud
• Varietal Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Sauternais
• Appellation Sauternes

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