Silky and rich, this showcases black cherry with gourmet touches and swirls of black pepper and rosemary. There's certainly an exotic edge here, with the natural drawing in of its Médoc tannins and highly enjoyable mouthwatering finish. It's a good Giscours with clear personality, focus and balance. Decant if drinking it in the next five years.

Currants, cedar, tobacco leaves, smoke, flowers, and spice aromatics open up the wine. On the palate. the wine is fresh, vibrant, silky, and displays a nice spicy touch to the ripe plums and currants that sticks all the way through to the finish. This is a pleasure to taste now, and will only get better with a few more years of age. Drink from 2022-2040.

53% cabernet sauvignon 40% merlot 7% cabernet franc. Dark at the core with a medium bright red rim. Chocolaty and decidedly modern on the nose with supple black fruits and high tones dark red fruits. Forest raspberry ripe cherry and all spice complement aromas of dusty cocoa and vanilla bean. The palate is dry with oak complementing an array of dark red fruits. The finish is long with well integrated tannins and subtle oak undertones.

The rich texture is clear visually with its inky plum colour, and this has plenty of ripe damson and black cherry fruit on the attack. Bitter chocolate and smoked turmeric adds opulence, although the tannins remain tight and this is a little abrupt on the finish. Less suave than many 2009s right now, although clear underlying power. First year with Denis Dubourdieu as consultant, 50% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 22 to October 13.

Tasted at the Château Giscours vertical, the 2009 Château Giscours is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot picked between September 22 and October 13. Deep garnet in color, it has a sumptuous bouquet with blackberry, saddle leather, forest floor and even just a faint touch of juniper berries. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, lightly grained tannin. This is a very harmonious Giscours with cedar and a pinch of black pepper sprinkled over the black fruit. It is certainly well proportioned with one of the more "masculine" finishes for the vintage. Showing better than when I tasted it blind a couple of years ago, this is an excellent Margaux that should drink earlier than the succeeding vintage. Tasted June 2015. - Neal Martin

This is alluring with lots of incense warm espresso and roasted mesquite notes leading the way for a sleek core of mouthwatering black currant and blackberry fruit. The long finish lets the mesquite edge linger with well-embedded grip. Rock-solid. Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2014 through 2029. Tasted twice with consistent notes. -JM