Château Giscours

The first written mention of a fortified keep dates from around 1330. In 1847, the Count of Pescatore had the château, built thirty years earlier by Sieur Promis, embellished. It was only after the war that the château was bought by Nicolas Tari, who set about restoring the vineyard to its former prestige. In 1995, the estate was taken over by Éric Albada Jelgersma, who immediately invested in renovating the vineyard and farm buildings. He surrounded himself with a new team who now run Giscours, continuing the tradition of generations of winegrowers who have made this estate a world-renowned grand cru. Located 20 km from Bordeaux, the Giscours Cru Classé selection area extends over the two communes of the Margaux appellation: Labarde and Arsac. The original terroir of Château Giscours lies on three main ridges: the long Cantelaude ridge which stretches out in front of the château at an altitude of 17 m, and the two ridges which form the Poujeaut at a height of 20 m to the west. The Cantelaude hillside faces east/west, providing ideal exposure to the sun’s rays and allowing the grapes to ripen fully. The soil is composed of Garonne gravel and glacial sand. The two croups of Grand and Petit Poujeaut have the same texture as the previous one, but are slightly leaner. This succession of pretty gravelly hilltops is due to the passage of the river “Le Cordet”, which carried and moved the gravel during successive floods in the Quaternary period. This terroir is completely different from the other sites in the region, because it combines all the quality factors that can be found in a grand cru: exposure, drainage, very warm soil in spring, root permeability, fertility, water regulation in summer, etc. In 2018, the Albada Jelgersma children, Dennis, Derk and Valérie, took over the reins of the estate, alongside Alexander van Beek as general manager.