Château Guiraud Sauternes, 2025 - Magnum
Château Guiraud Sauternes, 2025 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 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
Couldn't load pickup availability
Enquire about this item
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."
"Elegant and balanced, with quince, pastry and spice aromas. Medium-bodied with a silky texture. Refined and charming, with controlled sweetness and a succulent spice note bringing vitality toward the finish."
"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, with sandy-gravel soils over a clay-limestone subsoil that provides excellent drainage. The elevation and proximity to the Ciron river create perfect conditions for morning mists that encourage botrytis development, followed by afternoon sunshine that concentrates the grapes. This unique microclimate allows for the extended harvest period essential to great Sauternes, sometimes lasting several months as pickers select only perfectly botrytised berries.
Sauternes represents the pinnacle of botrytis-affected dessert wines, with strict regulations governing everything from grape varieties to minimum residual sugar levels. The appellation requires grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea, the noble rot that concentrates sugars and develops complex flavours. Unlike many dessert wine regions, Sauternes producers must achieve natural alcohol levels of at least 12%, ensuring both power and longevity. The 1855 classification recognised Sauternes' greatness, with Château d'Yquem as the sole Premier Cru Supérieur and estates like Guiraud earning Premier Grand Cru Classé status.
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.
OUR GROWERS
Château Guiraud Sauternes
