2014 Château Guiraud Le G De Guiraud Bordeaux Blanc Sec

Château Guiraud is one of the largest estates in Sauternes and makes a Premier Cru Sauternes. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries the 300-acre estate, which includes 210 acres of vineyards, was owned by a single family, the Guirauds, who earned the estate a reputation for outstanding wine. In 2006 the estate was purchased by four business partners who have continued to produce prestigious wines. Vineyards are planted with 65% Semillon and 35% Sauvignon Blanc, which is a notably high percentage of Sauvignon Blanc by the standards of the region. On average the vines are 30 years old. Nearly 10,000 bottles of Château Guiraud are produced annually. The estate also produces a dry white wine of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Bordeaux is the world’s most famous fine-wine producing region. Even non-wine drinkers recognize the names of Bordeaux’s celebrated wines, such as Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild. Located near the Atlantic coast in southwest France, the region takes its name from the seaport city of Bordeaux, a wine trading center with an outstanding site on the Garonne River and easy access to the Atlantic. Like most French wine regions, Bordeaux’s first vineyards were planted by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago, then tended by medieval monks. Aristocrats and nobility later owned the region’s best estates and today estates are owned by everyone from non-French business conglomerates to families who have been proprietors for generations. Bordeaux has nearly 280,000 acres of vineyards, 57 appellations and 10,000 wine-producing châteaux. Bordeaux is bifurcated by the Gironde Estuary into so-called “right bank” and “left bank” appellations. Bordeaux’s red wines are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It also makes white wines of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. There are several classification systems in Bordeaux. All are attempts to rank the estates based on the historic quality of the wines.