Château Giscours is a 3ème Grand Cru Classé of 1855 in the commune of Labarde, at the southern end of Margaux. The estate’s broad croupes of deep Garonne gravel, threaded with sand and clay, are textbook Cabernet country: free-draining, warm, and capable of giving ripe tannins without excess weight. After a revival under Nicolas Tari in the mid-20th century, a modern renaissance began in the late 1990s with the Jelgersma family and long-time director Alexander Van Beek, who doubled down on vineyard precision and gentler winemaking. Quality since the mid-2000s has been notably consistent, with standout years across the last decade.
The vineyard is large for Margaux (around 100 hectares in production) and planted mainly to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with smaller shares of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Detailed parcel work is the rule: massal selections, canopy and soil management tailored to each block, and picking by flavour ripeness rather than sugar. In the cellar, fermentation takes place in a mix of stainless steel and concrete, extractions are measured, and élevage typically runs 12–18 months in French oak with a judicious proportion of new barrels so wood reads as polish and length, not flavour.
Giscours’ style is archetypal Margaux with a little more backbone: violet and rose top notes over cassis, blackberry and dark cherry; cedar, graphite and a cool, gravelly line; tannins that are firm yet refined. In warmer vintages the wine shows a plush, velvety mid-palate; in cooler years the floral lift and mineral detail come to the fore. Either way, it’s built for the table as much as for the cellar—supple enough to drink earlier than some Left Bank peers, yet structured to evolve.
The range is clear and well defined. The grand vin carries the estate’s name; La Sirène de Giscours is the second wine, offering earlier approachability in the same idiom, and smaller cuvées (including a Haut-Médoc from estate holdings) broaden the portfolio. Recent vintages have underlined the estate’s form—ripe, beautifully perfumed wines with precise tannins and length.
Cellaring guidance: La Sirène usually drinks well within 3–6 years; the grand vin typically opens from 6–8 years after the vintage and can develop gracefully for 15–25 years in stronger seasons, gaining cigar box, dried rose and truffle while holding Margaux’s hallmark perfume and finesse. Serve at 16–18 °C in large Bordeaux stems and decant young bottles to relax the mid-palate and let the aromatics bloom.
