Vertical Tasting of Chateau Gruaud Larose At its best, Gruaud Larose, a deuxième cru classé (second growth)

 in the famous Bordeaux classification of 1855, embodies all that is 

great about Bordeaux, and Saint-Julien in particular; its wines strike a

 magical balance between power and finesse and age splendidly.&nbsp; At its 

worst, some&nbsp;past vintages were too earthy, weedy or gamey, particularly 

in the '80s and '90s.&nbsp; In truth, Gruaud Larose has also changed in style

 over the years.&nbsp; Whereas it was at one time one of the more massive 

Saint-Juliens, over the last 15 years or so it has become more similar 

to the other top wines of its appellation. The estate was created

 in 1757 by Monsieur Gruaud, who combined the three properties of Tenac,

 Sartaignac and Dumarle to form Gruaud (or Gruau, as it was occasionally

 written back then), although the basis for an estate dates back as far 

as 1725, when a knight, Joseph Stanislas Gruaud, began assembling 

parcels of land.&nbsp; In reality, the first name of this estate was 

Fonbedeau (or Fond Bedeau, as originally written), and only later was 

changed to Gruaud.&nbsp; Originally, there were actually two different wines 

made,&nbsp;called Abbé Gruaud and Chevalier de Gruaud, which belonged to two 

descendants of the knight--a priest and a magistrate. The name 

became Gruaud Larose as we know it today when, upon the magistrate's 

death in 1778, the estate became the property of Joseph-Sébastien, 

Monsieur de Larose and Lieutenant-General of the Sénéchaussée of Guyenne

 (and also the owner of Chateau Larose-Trintaudon), who bought up all 

the other parcels as well.&nbsp; Other famous owners of Gruaud Larose have 

included the Sarget family (who unfortunately sold off half of the 

estate in 1867) and the Cordier family, who reunited the estate's two 

halves in 1934.&nbsp; Cordier then sold the estate to Jacques Merlaut, the 

current owner since 1997. Gruaud Larose is a large property, with

 82 hectares of vineyards (66 different parcels of vines!) averaging 40 

years of age and planted at a density of 8,000 to 10,000 vines per 

hectare.&nbsp; The encepagement has changed over the years, with 

cabernet franc, which represented as much as 9% of the planted surface 

in the 1980s, deemed to be of low quality and&nbsp;basically phased out 

altogether.&nbsp; Today Gruaud Larose, like Left Bank wines in general, is a 

mainly cabernet sauvignon wine, with most vintages also including about 

35% merlot and a dollop of petit verdot.&nbsp; Most of the parcels are 

located around the chateau and in the direction of Chateau Lagrange, 

which means they are located away from the river.&nbsp; This fact is of 

critical importance in understanding the wines of Gruaud Larose, for 

there can be as much as two-to-three-degree (Centigrade) difference in 

average temperature between vineyards located close to the banks of the 

Gironde (such as those of Ducru-Beaucaillou) and those situated farther 

inland.&nbsp; Then again, the cooler inland sites may be benefiting from 

global warming. The average annual yield at Gruaud Larose is 

between 50 and 60 hectoliters per hectare.&nbsp; A large volume of wine is 

produced each year, and Gruaud Larose is one of the easiest high-quality

 clarets to find in the marketplace. Long the fiefdom of George 

Pauli, who was the winemaker at the property for almost 40 years, the 

winemaking at Gruaud Larose has undergone changes over time.&nbsp; Under 

Pauli, fermentation temperatures were always high, routinely reaching 31

 to 33 degrees C, and only indigenous yeasts were used; the cuvaison

 lasted anywhere from 21 to 35 days in wood and cement vats, with two 

daily pump-overs.&nbsp; One-third new oak was used for each vintage.&nbsp; With 

new owner Jacques Merlaut on board, winemaking is now overseen by his 

son Jean, and the wines have become suppler and more refined.&nbsp; The 

consulting winemaker is the well-respected Eric Boissenot (who also 

consults at four of the five Left Bank first growths), and the maitre de chai is&nbsp;Philippe Carmagnac, who is a wealth of information on all things Gruaud Larose. &nbsp; Gruaud

 Larose has performed well in&nbsp;the new century&nbsp;after a difficult spell in

 the 1990s.&nbsp; Some of the wines from the 1980s are memorable while others

 are chunky and lacking in refinement;&nbsp;but even in the 1970s, when most 

Bordeaux wines were less than what they might have been, a number of 

Gruaud Larose vintages still stand out.&nbsp; Of course, the 1961/1962 duo is

 really worth searching out, but potential buyers should keep in mind 

just how small the overall production of Bordeaux was in '61. The

 vertical tasting was conducted in May of 2012 at the chateau, all from 

pristine 750-milliliter bottles taken from the estate's cellar.&nbsp; 

Subsequently I tasted a number of wines from the 19th century at the 

chateau just before the primeur tastings at the beginning of 

April of this year.&nbsp; As always in the vertical tastings I describe, I 

have only scored wines from bottles that have come directly from the 

estate or from my own cellar, purchased upon release.&nbsp; This helps to 

ensure that any score&nbsp;I attribute to an older vintage pertains to an 

authentic bottle of the wine in question--albeit in better condition 

than bottles purchased in recent years from unknown provenance.&nbsp; In 

October of 2012, I retried a number of the younger vintages in this 

tasting from my own cellar, and am happy to report that I found no major

 discrepancies between those bottles and the ones I sampled last year.&nbsp; 

All of the wines were decanted one to two hours in advance and 

only&nbsp;three bottles in the vertical tasting needed to be replaced due to 

obvious oxidation or other faults. <a target="_blank" href="http://vinousmedia.com/wines?sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=vintage&amp;wf_dirty=false&amp;wf_export_fields=&amp;wf_export_format=&amp;wf_id=&amp;wf_match=all&amp;wf_model=Wine&amp;wf_name=&amp;wf_order=vintage&amp;wf_order_type=desc&amp;wf_page=1&amp;wf_per_page=25&amp;wf_submitted=true&amp;wf_type=WillFilter%3A%3AFilter&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=556">Show all the wines (sorted by vintage)</a> -Ian D'Agata

Vertical Tasting of Chateau Gruaud Larose

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