Château Guiraud Sauternes, 2025
Château Guiraud Sauternes, 2025
- 75cl
- 14%
- Dessert
- Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris
- Organic
- Biodynamic
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028
Château Guiraud stands among Sauternes' finest, a Premier Grand Cru Classé that captures botrytis magic in liquid form. We find Guiraud strikes that rare balance between opulent sweetness and mineral tension that defines great Sauternes.
What the critics say:
"Attractive balance and bite, with steel, citrus, preserved lemons, patisserie, grated ginger, baked pineapple, plenty of lift, successfully walks the line of opulence and biting acidities that are so needed in such a concentrated vintage. Great stuff from ex-Yquem director Sandrine Garbay."
"The 2025 Guiraud is well defined on the nose, with plenty of botrytised fruit, hints of saffron and apricot blossom, quite nuanced compared with some of its peers. The palate is well balanced, with a tangy, mellifluous entry. Bright acidity counters the richness of this Guiraud, a touch of spice towards the lingering and powerful finish that fans out with style. This is a great Guiraud from winemaker Sandrine Garbay."
"Sweet and luscious, a lovely lick of pineapple and mango straight away – ripe, sweet, but also salty the two giving a nice interplay between power and concentration and brightness and energy. Grippy and fun with an approachable element as well as being signature Sauternes from a great vintage. Sweet candied lemons, pineapple chunks and wet stones. Yummy."
Guiraud's vineyards sit on the highest point in Sauternes at 60 metres elevation, with deep gravel soils over clay and limestone subsoil. The proximity to the Ciron river creates the morning mists essential for botrytis development, while afternoon sunshine concentrates the sugars. This unique microclimate, combined with the excellent drainage from gravel soils, allows for the slow, extended ripening that produces Sauternes' characteristic complexity. The terroir naturally favours Sémillon, which comprises 65% of the blend and provides the wine's waxy richness and age-worthiness.
Sauternes is Bordeaux's most prestigious dessert wine appellation, where noble rot transforms ordinary grapes into liquid treasure. The AOC demands minimum residual sugar levels of 45g/L and restricts yields to just 25 hectolitres per hectare, ensuring concentration and quality. Only five grape varieties are permitted, with Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc dominating most blends. What sets Sauternes apart from other sweet wine regions is the perfect marriage of morning humidity from the Garonne and Ciron rivers with warm, dry afternoons that prevent grey rot while encouraging the beneficial botrytis cinerea.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
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Château Guiraud Sauternes
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