Wine Wednesday got a serious upgrade with a selection of bold blends from Bordeaux’s Château Giscours and Tuscany’s Caiarossa. Reps from both estates were in Dallas this week and swung by The Wine Authority with some crates of their marvelous red elixirs.
Giscours and Caiarossa had just been featured in a “Bordeaux Meets Toscana” winemakers’ dinner at Lavendou Bistro Provincial on Tuesday. I couldn’t make it and I was bummed! I went to one of Lavendou’s Bordeaux dinners in March and it was an exceptional treat.
When I heard these wines were making a whistle stop at my favorite wine bar, my plans to put on pajamas and have popcorn for dinner were instantly dashed. Now, y’all know I review a lot of casual wines on this blog, including those lovely Bordeaux Supérieurs from Costco. But if someone offers me Grand Cru Classé, I’m gonna drink the Classé, mmmkay?
The wines were introduced by Alexander van Beek, General Manager of Château Giscours in Margaux and Caiarossa in Tuscany. Giscours is located in Margaux on the Left Bank and is classified as a Third Grand Cru Classé. The Château began making wine in 1552, and so was already a really old estate by the time the Classification of 1855 came around.
Having been through many centuries of changes, Château Giscours is currently owned by the Albada Jelgersma family. In 2004, they decided to supplement their historic Bordeaux estate with the purchase of a winery in the Tuscan hills, Caiarossa….but we’ll get to Tuscany in a moment.
Our evening got started with the 2020 Haut-Médoc Giscours. This is Giscours’s third wine and is a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Made in a lush yet structured style, it’s a mouthful of aromatic black berries with some fresh minty and green notes sprouting out from beneath its vibrant fruit. Bottled under the Haut-Médoc appellation, it’s not strictly Margaux but it’s ready to drink and under $30, so who cares?
From there we moved on to Château Giscours’s Cabernet-based main wine, the 2016 and 2015 vintages. The 2016 was up first. Also a Cab/Merlot (81% and 19%) blend without any additional varieties in the mix, it’s delicious. Intense aromas of blackcurrant and black cherry, with pretty florals, raspberry liqueur, and refreshing traces of mint/camphor. The tannins are smooth and the acidity’s holding up, bringing brightness to all the rich and layered fruits.
Both vintages were excellent and it was hard to pick a favorite. But the 2015 Giscours might have just edged out its younger, fresher rival. The addition of 5% Petit Verdot added an element of savory complexity that was hard to resist. There’s still plenty of luscious fruits–but also sage, peppery spice, tea leaves, dried cherry, and toasty caramel richness that contributed to a lingering finish.
For the next part of the tasting, we hopped from swampy Bordeaux to sunny Tuscany. Ivo Assanelli, Sales Manager for Caiarossa, was there to guide us through these innovative wines.
Located in historic hills south of Pisa, Caiarossa is a biodynamic vineyard with just 99 acres under vine. The name means “Red Gaia” or “red earth.” Caiarossa also makes a white wine, a dessert wine, and a grappa (distilled from spent grape pomace–waste not, want not). But they’re best known for their entries into the Super Tuscan genre.
Bottled under the Toscana IGT, the Super Tuscan is a work-around for the restrictive Chianti DOCG. Winemakers are basically allowed to put whatever grapes they want into these blends, and they do. These are gigantic reds, full of structure, big fruit, and enough flavor diversity to keep your palate spinning all the way to the bottom of the glass.
The 2019 Pergolaia is a 76% Sangiovese blend supported by a generous sploosh of Cab and Merlot. Nothing light at all about this wine, actually–but after tasting the three concentrated Bordeaux, it was a welcome interlude of juicy red cherry and fresh herbs. A beauty of a wine, and the most approachable of the three Tuscans.
Winery rep Ivo kept telling us to look for salinity “from the sea breeze.” I currently suck at detecting minerality–especially in red wines!–but I believe him that it was in there. Later, our hosts found a bonus bottle of the 2017 Pergolaia and opened it. A warmer vintage, I was told. It’s engaging and spicy, with pruny black-plum flavors overtaking some of its freshness.
Finally we arrived at our Everest–the biggest of the big wines–the Caiarossa Toscana Rosso. I was so excited to be invited to this tasting that I forgot to grab a spec sheet, but fortunately the producer’s website helped me out. The 2019 Caiarossa is 26% Syrah, 24% Cabernet Franc, 23% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, 4% Sangiovese, 2% Grenache. Tons of black fruit, oakiness, and licorice with some earth. This is a concentrated, complicated, “why-not” multi-blend…for those occasions when too much is just enough.
Naturally, all of the wines were available to pre-order for later pickup. Besides single bottles, magnums, and cases, Château Giscours was also offering a snazzy boxed set with six consecutive vintages. Sigh…one of these days. (Peeks at 401(k) and cries.)
Instead of those tempting verticals, I went for value. I snagged a bottle of the 2020 Giscours Haut-Médoc (for me), and a bottle of the 2019 Pergolaia (for Sarah, the Sangio lover). Now I have a backlog of quality reds for the dinner table–hooray! I will think up some nice food pairings for these wines, drink them, and report back.
Wines tasted:
Giscours Haut-Médoc (2020)
Château Giscours (2016)
Château Giscours (2015)
Caiarossa “Pergolaia” Toscana (2019)
Caiarossa “Pergolaia” Toscana (2017)
Caiarossa Toscana (2019)
Further Reading:
Giscours Margaux (official website)
Caiarossa (official website)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own. The retail price of this tasting was $40 (comped with my paid Wine Authority membership).
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