As you would expect, two very different wines! I bought both as possible outliers for my daughter’s birth-year collection - the Giscours was an obvious choice, the Canon-L-G somewhat less so, but I reasoned that there’s no guarantee she will come to share my taste, and it was cheap, so…
Giscours - Margaux - 2006
Not especially expressive aromas of blackberry, cedar and redcurrant, leading into a soft, velvety mouthful of blackberry and violet, with blackcurrant only starting to show after a few hours in the decanter. It’s all very restrained and subtle, a little too much at first - the wine was so laid-back that it was a little dull, but once it fully opened there was a lot more fruit, with extra tastes of raspberry and wild strawberry creeping in. The most attractive side is the plump velvety tones mid-palate and the subtlety of the fruit - all in all I liked it a lot but there are better wines from Margaux in 2006 - for example, Dauzac and Issan. 90 pts
Canon-La-Gaffelière - Saint Emilion - 2006
Bright, even strident, notes of cherry, cranberry and cassis, without the oak I was expecting. In the mouth, just as arresting, it really needed six hours in a decanter to calm down. Even then, the dark cherry and blueberry was taut, sharp and tarty, quite high octane, quite hard work, but perhaps because of the 35% Cabernet Franc, there is a cool patch of blackcurrant mid-palate which gives the taste buds some respite before the fairly hot, tangy finish. Not my sort of wine at all but less challenging than expected. There must have been a lot of oak in its youth but thankfully this wasn’t a problem. Overall, good if you like that sort of thing - for fans of the style, this is certainly worth a good 92 points, maybe more.
Unlike other 06s tasted so far, neither wine was very tannic.
I found it impossible to taste the wines together - the Canon-L-G was like a shouty teenager and overwhelmed the Giscours completely. It’s easy to see how this sort of wine can impress in EP tastings. But I’m glad I bought another bottle because my daughter rather liked it! As for the Giscours, I will certainly look out for another couple, but it’s not a wine for the long term.