Chateau Giscours

Chateau Giscours has been around since the 1300s. Initially, it served as a dungeon. The earliest record of it containing a vineyard was in 1552, when it was sold to Pierre de l'Horme for 1000 pounds.

One of the neat things about the vineyard, shown below, is a display of the Chateau Giscours soil. The sign at the top of the display reads:
Texture du sol
Grand Poujeau
Coupe sur 20 meters
So, this is what the first 20 meters of the Chateau Giscours soil looks like: lots of gravel and then clay. No wonder Bordeaux vines are so hardy, they have to fight through all of that if they want to grow.



Chateau Giscours has 80 hectares under vine. 53% of the plantings are Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% are Merlot and the remaining 5% is split between Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It is also one of the few Chateaux in Bordeaux to be ISO 90002 certified. The grapes are all harvested by hand, and then manually de-stemmed.

The tasting room is inviting with a mixture of old world and modern styles. On my tour I was able to taste the Chateau Giscours as well as the second wine La Sirene de Giscours and, as a special treat, they had a bottle of Chateau Dutheil available.