Purchased two magnums at auction. when they arrived, one had a loose cork that eventually sank and signs of recent seepage. Emergency decant into a 750 ml with a new cork and remaining volume into a decanter. Shows some of the 62 vintage characteristics with higher acidity and fairly firm tannins. The aromas on the nose are only marginally affected and the palate is quite nice with good texture and length. Needs a little settling. A little "ashtray" character reinforcing the leaner, tannic side of this wine. Improved considerably in decanter overnight,allowing the sediment to settle. This suggests that there's still a bit of life left in this wine.
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Thought this smelled great when I double-decanted for travel, but thought I got a hint of TCA when first poured. Luckily, whatever it was blew off (so not TCA). Lots of leather, rounder black fruits, good but not great (a bottle last year was better), but main thing was birthday boy enjoyed B/B+,
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Good level, bottom of long neck. This had plenty of presence & provided good interest. Declined after a couple of hours. Worth buying, if sensibly priced.
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Old style Cordier bottle, well into (long) neck. Really lovely and elegant claret, resolved tannin, moderate acids, nose of dark fruit and old books. On palate balanced, blackcurrant accented with leather and forest floor. Good finish, very pleased with showing. A-
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Popped and poured. Ruby to brick red. In the beginning some dusty aromas. Soft and delicate on the palate. The dust disappeared after a while and the aromas became cleaner, with classic, developed Medoc aromas. Later notes of raisins. All the way it was soft and elegant on the palate, but with a rather low concentration and length.
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garnet with orange rim - classic old Bordeaux nose of mature cabernet fruit with some leather and cigar box - but the mouth was its charm, with an elegant balance of sweet cabernet fruit with excellent acid balance and surprisingly full body for a >50 year old wine - none of the off flavors or maderization in some of the other tasting notes - loved this wine with a rack of lamb - exactly what I expected in a Bordeaux this old from an underrated vintage
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Wet and quite rotten cork. Ruby red. Gamey aromas with earthy minerals, forest floor, mushroom, tobacco, horse manure and some cellar. Elegant and tender, but also quite chewy and fruity on the palate. In good shape, but has lost some energy.
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Over the hill was probably about 10 years ago. The wine has taken on a maderized character. There is still some remaining essence of what it used to be, but you have to be quite open and forgiving to look for it.
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Nose: Clean, with medium intensity at first, then moved more towards high. Black fruit and fully developed.
Palate: profound taste, with earthy damp forrest notes, delicious green bellpepper with marinated bbq meat and chocolate notes. Full bodied with some hints of acidity to keep the structure aligned. Tannins were almost all gone.
This is highly recommandable and should be sought after! But it should, however, be drunk with a year or two. This does not get better!
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Mature and surprisingly refined. A light mustiness overall, more on the nose than palate though. Attractive soft white pepper notes. Nice bottle for the vintage.
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Half bottle, not the best fill, disgusting/dead. After an almost equally bad Angelus, the learning here is that if you move a bottle from horizontal to vertical position and you get small bubbles below the cork when trying to open it, expect the worst...
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Château Gruaud-Larose 1928 - 2011: A bit unclean smell; dry wood, good acidity, rather short, dry tannins. I guess this was considerably better 20-30 years ago.
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If you like dirty, old style mature Bordeaux, this is for you. Excellent earth, wet leaves, dark fruit and burnt coffee on the nose and palate. This held up extremely well as it started out rough, but rounded out over about an hour to reveal more sweetness of fruit amidst all the earth. Tobacco. Medium, somewhat astringent finish.
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Drinks with Mark Bright (Saison, San Francisco): A lovely showing from a solid wine - so fresh and young tasting that I guessed it was a 1975! A beautiful example of just how well these old Gruaud Larose's age, it had a lovely gravelly nose studded with bits of cassis, tobacco and a whiff of cigarette smoke. Really classic left-bank stuff. The palate was a real joy too. Not the most complex of wines at its age, but it had lovely matured flavours of hawthorn berries and dried plums couched in really bright acidity and firm, but very fine tannins. A real pleasure to drink. Nice finish too, very fresh and long, with little tobacco notes weaving in and out of subtle black fruit tones. A lovely, elegant wine with lots of finesse - so elegant in fact that it led me further south to Graves rather than the Médoc in my blind guesses. At a nice place now, but this bottle at least could still go on for quite a few years.
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Gruaud Larose Masterclass with David Launay (Fine & Rare Wines, London): Bricking, light red colour and shows its age.Nice on the nose, fine, elegant and open with good red fruit. Well aged and fully mature. Alive but not intense (like the 66). Very well made wine and one to buy if can be sourced from good cellar. Lots of finesse and elegance. Some watery thin edge to the finish but apart from that a great wine for its age. ( Andreas 93 / Nicol 95) 94 overall.
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Claret Club Dinner at Mandarin Oriental...Double Magnums direct from Chateau for between 40 guests,double decanted;Bursting with flavour...dried figs,port like without the stickiness...damson red with merely a hint of orange tinge to the edges.Smooth.Faded a touch when tasted later in evening (2 hrs) but a wonderful wine from an underated year following '61
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3/2/2024 - vagrantone Likes this wine: 92 Points
Purchased two magnums at auction.
when they arrived, one had a loose cork that eventually sank and signs of recent seepage.
Emergency decant into a 750 ml with a new cork and remaining volume into a decanter.
Shows some of the 62 vintage characteristics with higher acidity and fairly firm tannins. The aromas on the nose are only marginally affected and the palate is quite nice with good texture and length.
Needs a little settling.
A little "ashtray" character reinforcing the leaner, tannic side of this wine.
Improved considerably in decanter overnight,allowing the sediment to settle. This suggests that there's still a bit of life left in this wine.
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5/25/2022 - DaleW wrote:
Thought this smelled great when I double-decanted for travel, but thought I got a hint of TCA when first poured. Luckily, whatever it was blew off (so not TCA). Lots of leather, rounder black fruits, good but not great (a bottle last year was better), but main thing was birthday boy enjoyed B/B+,
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2/4/2022 - chbeaumont wrote: 89 Points
Good level, bottom of long neck. This had plenty of presence & provided good interest. Declined after a couple of hours.
Worth buying, if sensibly priced.
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12/6/2021 - awolffjr wrote: 94 Points
Amazing wine. This is why we’re patient with Bordeaux. Great crock. ExcellenT nose. Resolved tannins. Long finish. Excellent in every way.
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5/20/2021 - DaleW wrote:
Old style Cordier bottle, well into (long) neck. Really lovely and elegant claret, resolved tannin, moderate acids, nose of dark fruit and old books. On palate balanced, blackcurrant accented with leather and forest floor. Good finish, very pleased with showing. A-
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12/15/2019 - dlemyre Likes this wine: 91 Points
A mon grand étonnement, cette bouteille était encore bonne. La robe est rouge tirant vers l’oranger, mais compte tenu de l’âge, c’est excusable.
Les tannins sont doux, mais quand même encore présent.
Je lève mon chapeau à ce vin.
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1/26/2019 - AudunG wrote: 89 Points
Popped and poured. Ruby to brick red. In the beginning some dusty aromas. Soft and delicate on the palate. The dust disappeared after a while and the aromas became cleaner, with classic, developed Medoc aromas. Later notes of raisins. All the way it was soft and elegant on the palate, but with a rather low concentration and length.
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7/14/2018 - Verb Likes this wine: 94 Points
garnet with orange rim - classic old Bordeaux nose of mature cabernet fruit with some leather and cigar box - but the mouth was its charm, with an elegant balance of sweet cabernet fruit with excellent acid balance and surprisingly full body for a >50 year old wine - none of the off flavors or maderization in some of the other tasting notes - loved this wine with a rack of lamb - exactly what I expected in a Bordeaux this old from an underrated vintage
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3/23/2018 - AudunG wrote: 90 Points
Wet and quite rotten cork. Ruby red. Gamey aromas with earthy minerals, forest floor, mushroom, tobacco, horse manure and some cellar. Elegant and tender, but also quite chewy and fruity on the palate. In good shape, but has lost some energy.
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2/17/2018 - Jeff Leve wrote: 80 Points
Over the hill was probably about 10 years ago. The wine has taken on a maderized character. There is still some remaining essence of what it used to be, but you have to be quite open and forgiving to look for it.
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11/10/2016 - Fred_Bo Likes this wine: 93 Points
Nose: Clean, with medium intensity at first, then moved more towards high. Black fruit and fully developed.
Palate: profound taste, with earthy damp forrest notes, delicious green bellpepper with marinated bbq meat and chocolate notes. Full bodied with some hints of acidity to keep the structure aligned. Tannins were almost all gone.
This is highly recommandable and should be sought after! But it should, however, be drunk with a year or two. This does not get better!
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9/7/2016 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 93 Points
Mature and surprisingly refined. A light mustiness overall, more on the nose than palate though. Attractive soft white pepper notes. Nice bottle for the vintage.
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8/9/2015 - pavel_p wrote: flawed
Half bottle, not the best fill, disgusting/dead. After an almost equally bad Angelus, the learning here is that if you move a bottle from horizontal to vertical position and you get small bubbles below the cork when trying to open it, expect the worst...
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1/31/2015 - LWI wrote: 87 Points
Château Gruaud-Larose 1928 - 2011: A bit unclean smell; dry wood, good acidity, rather short, dry tannins. I guess this was considerably better 20-30 years ago.
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6/8/2014 - johnh1001 wrote:
Unfortunately another two bottles of this were dead.
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12/15/2013 - johnh1001 wrote: 90 Points
If you like dirty, old style mature Bordeaux, this is for you. Excellent earth, wet leaves, dark fruit and burnt coffee on the nose and palate. This held up extremely well as it started out rough, but rounded out over about an hour to reveal more sweetness of fruit amidst all the earth. Tobacco. Medium, somewhat astringent finish.
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7/21/2012 - Paul S wrote: 93 Points
Drinks with Mark Bright (Saison, San Francisco): A lovely showing from a solid wine - so fresh and young tasting that I guessed it was a 1975! A beautiful example of just how well these old Gruaud Larose's age, it had a lovely gravelly nose studded with bits of cassis, tobacco and a whiff of cigarette smoke. Really classic left-bank stuff. The palate was a real joy too. Not the most complex of wines at its age, but it had lovely matured flavours of hawthorn berries and dried plums couched in really bright acidity and firm, but very fine tannins. A real pleasure to drink. Nice finish too, very fresh and long, with little tobacco notes weaving in and out of subtle black fruit tones. A lovely, elegant wine with lots of finesse - so elegant in fact that it led me further south to Graves rather than the Médoc in my blind guesses. At a nice place now, but this bottle at least could still go on for quite a few years.
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5/31/2012 - CdBdxChicago wrote:
DRINK
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9/27/2011 - Papies wrote: 94 Points
Gruaud Larose Masterclass with David Launay (Fine & Rare Wines, London): Bricking, light red colour and shows its age.Nice on the nose, fine, elegant and open with good red fruit. Well aged and fully mature. Alive but not intense (like the 66). Very well made wine and one to buy if can be sourced from good cellar. Lots of finesse and elegance. Some watery thin edge to the finish but apart from that a great wine for its age. ( Andreas 93 / Nicol 95) 94 overall.
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6/12/2011 - salcorn wrote: 90 Points
Leather, worchestshire sauce, soy, complex but unusual
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4/26/2008 - HRS wrote: 96 Points
Claret Club Dinner at Mandarin Oriental...Double Magnums direct from Chateau for between 40 guests,double decanted;Bursting with flavour...dried figs,port like without the stickiness...damson red with merely a hint of orange tinge to the edges.Smooth.Faded a touch when tasted later in evening (2 hrs) but a wonderful wine from an underated year following '61
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