Giscours occupies a large property at Labarde, at the southern end of the Margaux appellation, with a lake, a cricket pitch and something like eighty hectares of vines. It feels less like a château than a small estate village. Nicolas Tari and his family rebuilt the place after the war, and through the 1970s Giscours was making some of the most admired wine in the commune.
The 1978 growing season is the one growers still talk about: cold and wet right through to mid-August, then an unbroken fine autumn that ripened the Cabernet and let picking run into late October. Margaux made scented, firm wines that year, with the perfume the appellation is known for and more backbone than usual.
A Third Growth from a strong decade at this estate, at a price well below what the same name fetches in a more celebrated vintage.
-
Producer: Château Giscours
-
Vintage: 1978
-
Appellation: Margaux AOC
-
Format: 75cl
-
Region: Bordeaux, France
-
Style: Red
Where it is likely to be now. At forty-eight this should be a mature, floral Margaux with its fruit largely turned to dried leaf and cedar, and like any bottle of its age it comes without a promise about the cork.
Who it suits. A forty-eighth birthday bottle for anyone born in 1978, and an easy one to explain to a recipient who is not a wine drinker.
Condition. The merchant grades it good — label, capsule and fill all as they should be for a bottle of this age.
Provenance. Bought to order from a professional European merchant. We check fill, label and capsule when the bottle reaches us and photograph it before it ships.
Delivered in 7 to 10 working days, tracked. Transit cover can be added at checkout.
Sold as a collectible item, as seen. No guarantee is given on drinkability.
