The 2001 vintage in Sauternes
Vintage benchmark: 98/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: The perfect autumn of 2001 remains the modern benchmark: liqueur, acidity and complexity here are in absolute balance.
Overall reading of the year’s season across Sauternes. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.
Tasting
Tasting note of Xavier Planty, co-owner & winemaker of Chateau Guiraud: Guiraud 2001 is for sure the most precise wine of the vintage. The risk was to be taken by an extreme concentration which would have given very rich wines, lacking of elegance and subtlety. GUIRAUD 2001 presents intense aromas, hawthorn flowers, fresh fruit, with a minty note which characterizes the vintage. The botrytis is terribly here, with fresh pepper, black tea flavours and a mysterious and wild side which calls for keeping it in the bottle. The feeling in mouth is magnificent, soft, but robust. The tonic feeling of the botrytis is amplified by a great freshness. Mouth aromas strengthens up the nose: the botrytis now shows them crystallized, of great precision and purity. The aftertaste is long. The sugar power never gives heaviness: It is the magic of natural sugars sublimated by botrytis. The liquor is fresh and light.
Blend of the 2001 vintage
- 65 % Sémillon
- 35 % Sauvignon
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2001 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with sémillon, sauvignon blanc, sauvignon gris, muscadelle — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2001 sheet
- 13.35 % vol.Alcohol
- 18 hl/haYield
- 35 yrsVine age
- 120,000 bottlesProduction
Winemaking
The harvest: uniquely hand picked, by successive selections through the vines, selecting only botrytised grapes. A minimum potential of 20% alcohol is required to start the harvest. Fermenting: In barrels over a period of three weeks to two months. Different batches are fermented until they reach their own equilibrium, which is dependant upon their selection. Chaptalisation, cryoextraction and all other techniques used to enrich the wine are absolutely forbidden.
Ageing
In barrels, from 18 to 24 months depending upon the vintage.
Terroir
The vines are cultivated upon very diverse soils and sub-soils. The soils are sandy gravel for 80% of the surface and clay gravel for the remainder. The sub-soils are extremely diverse. With profound translucent sands, pure gravels crossed through with red clay and limestone marls, fossilised oyster beds and red and white clay.
An offer on Château Guiraud 2001
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2001
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
This wine’s visuals are grouped in the media library. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 28, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.