Guiraud, like d’Yquem, is one of the few hard-to-describe
châteaux of Bordeaux. With its intoxicating perfumes, intense ripeness, and minutes-long savory finish, Guiraud’s wines always jockey for the best of First Growth Sauternes, but when you can get your hands on one with a massive chunk of age—which isn’t easy—you’re in for one rare treat.
I refuse to call this exceptionally textured and complex Sauternes a dessert wine—this is a main course wine, hard stop! Twenty-plus years of seamless, undisturbed integration from a great vintage and storied terroir means today’s offer deserves to shine brightest next to a luxurious dish. Owning this singular bottle means you’re already halfway to completing one of the world’s all-time great pairings: mature Sauternes and foie gras. So, take this into a French bistro and savor it alongside the aforementioned, or try your luck at home. Whichever you choose, you’ll be floored by the nuanced savory complexities that enchant your palate for minutes on end. We rushed to buy a tiny parcel in Bordeaux last year and now, after giving it ample time to settle, it’s ready to shock everyone in your vicinity. From all of us at SommSelect: we hope you enjoy this rare back-vintage gem!
The name printed in striking gold type on the front label carries a deep history: Founded in 1766 by the Guirauds, a family of merchants, the estate quickly became the standout name in Bordeaux and, within three generations, was delivering world-class wines that Emperor Napoleon III deemed “Premier Grand Cru Classé” in the still-resonating 1855 classification. Fastforwarding to modern history, the glamorous estate was acquired by four noteworthy investors in the mid-2000s: automobile mogul Robert Peugeot; proprietor of several high-profile châteaux in Saint-Émilion, Stephan Von Neipperg; Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier; and Guiraud’s longtime estate manager, Xavier Planty. This quartet quickly worked together to preserve the château’s organic approaches and, by 2011, the entire property was Certified Organic—the very first classified property to achieve this.
Over the course of three weeks in mid-September of 1998, four passes were made through Guiraud’s organically farmed, 40-year-old vines in order to hand-select—and from that tiny selection, heavily sort—the finest botrytised grapes. After all this painstaking work, they yielded a microscopic 18 hectoliters per hectare. For comparison, Château d’Yquem hovers around 10, with each vine equating to about one glass of wine. In the winery, grapes fermented for nearly six weeks in 50% new French barrels (and 50% once-used barrels), crafted from only the best coopers. The wine aged a total two years in barrels before bottling. It then continued maturing in a dark Bordeaux cellar until late 2018, when we were lucky enough to wrap our hands around a tiny allocation.
Guiraud’s 1998 reveals a dark, viscous amber with glints of pale gold moving out to the rim. After a few swirls, the wine’s thick, slow-moving tears cling and slowly ooze down the glass. Because we immensely enjoyed this wine in Bordeaux, we did a meticulous case study once it arrived at our warehouse. Though it was beautiful right out of the bottle, we found it brought the most joy on days two and three—but it still had impressive complexities and lift as I drank my last ounce the following week! If you recall the ‘09 we offered last year, this is an entirely different wine. Obviously, it’s showing greater development, but overall it is pure elegance interlaced with breathtaking intricacies. Expect supple aromas of dried apricot, fig, quince, caramelized Bosc pear, and marmalade, followed by button mushroom, damp white flowers, honey, crushed almonds, dried herbs, allspice, and brown sugar.
The full-bodied palate is refreshing and precise, in large thanks to the ‘98 vintage and the 20+ years of maturation that has perfectly integrated the sweetness at play. This is the lush style we all love in Sauternes, but there is impressive finesse that only the greatest châteaux can achieve. With ample lift and mature, yet clean notes of ripe fruit, baking spice, and savory earth, the finish just goes on and on and on—it’s a memory-forming wine. Serve in all-purpose white wine stems and enjoy a bottle over hours, days, even weeks (if tightly re-corked and refrigerated). You can flaunt this ‘98 as a savory main course pairing, a dessert accompaniment, or a standalone, but as mentioned, I believe it to be a soulmate for the first option. Follow the attached recipe to a T and you’ll understand why we proudly wave the Sauternes/foie gras flag.
