February 18, 2024 - A blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, and 9% Cabernet Franc. 14.2% ABV. Half-bottle. Decanted for four hours in a small decanter. Dark purple colour. Black currant, dark cherry, blueberry, blackberry, bitter chocolate, coffee, earth, spices, vanilla, lead pencil, and gravelly minerality, with good, medium-level acidity, ripe, round tannin, and great persistence. Ripe, and loosely structured, yet tight and too young to drink now. Consistent on day two. For mid-term drinking, maybe 2029 to 2042. 91(?)
July 4, 2023 - While you wouldn't mistake the 2018 Gruaud Larose for anything but a big, warm vintage, it also avoids the excesses common to a vintage with those climatic (and climactic) conditions. The aromatic profile here is a near-identical expression compared with a bottle tasted at the chateau in May 2023, with a big, ripe, slightly roasted nose of blackberry, plum, toast, bay leaf, and a little umami with black olive tapenade. The nose really bursts from the glass but there’s also an appealing, subtle potpourri note that's there if you look for it (happily, this grows more conspicuous with time). There's still some integrating oak imparting some coffee notes, but that's almost resolved. This is velvety, big, and enveloping in the mouth with just a hint of the 14.2% alcohol it actually possesses.
The heat of the vintage has imparted a jovial and broad-shouldered style at Gruaud Larose. It stays just on the right side of ripeness and the extraction has been quite gently handled, with tannins that are already velvety. This needs a little more time for the oak to integrate, but it's almost ready to drink. This shows well right out of the bottle, improves at hour 12, and flags by hour 24.
The assemblage here is 67% CS, 24% M, 9% CF, biodynamically farmed. Fermented (with co-inoculation) in 50% wood / 50% cement at 24-26 C. Elevage in 80% new oak.
May 26, 2023 - Young with silky tannins, all fruit with black currant that has a long finish
May 9, 2023 - Tasting the 2018 Gruaud Larose, plum, grilled nuts, and potpourri fill the glass. The palate is plush and gourmand but it's no push-over, either. This is essentially ready to drink now, surprisingly, at age 5. It's interesting to see this without some of the problems of other 2018s. I'm told that harvest was done very early in the mornings, to bring grapes in with better acidity and cooler temperatures.
November 26, 2022 - Dark purple. Strawberry / blueberry nose
Young wine, pop of cork very tight. Opened up in 10 min to drinkable. Decanted for an hour and did much better. Full mouth chocolate oak dark berry. High tight finish. Curious how it will be in 5 and 29 years.
Drank at a friends house and would invest in this winery and hold in my own cellar
April 17, 2022 - Very, very young, but impressive and filled with potential. There's a lot of primary black fruit and structure here but the tannins ease with time in the decanter, the aromatics are already pretty compelling, and the balance is excellent. Excited to see what this evolves into in a couple of decades, but like Keith I get the impression it's made of similar material to those great Gruauds from the mid-80s, albeit with cleaner fruit and none of the Cordier funk.
November 25, 2021 - Less ripe vs other St Julien peers, bit of menthol, camphor and oak.
September 26, 2021 - Tasted twice, over several days. As per my go-to routine for sampling such young BDX, ~1/2 bottle was Coravin-decanted into a 16oz amber bottle ~4h before sampling on day 1. I followed up on it again ~24h later. Tasted alongside Langoa Barton, Grand-Puy-Lacoste and Malescot St Exupery. Unyielding on the nose, even after 30h of air, with subtle aromas of crushed rocks, cassis, anise and provençale olives. Brutish, chewy and tannic, this is a rather structured, old school wine that will require patience to unwind. I feel like the potential is there, but I feel unqualified to guess how this will evolve. Reading Keith's notes below, I wholly agree with his notes and assessment.
March 9, 2021 - Round, plush, soft and full-bodied, the wine offers good richness, layers of ripe, currants, cherries and plums. There is depth and complexity with a touch of stone in the elegant, luxurious finish. Clearly Gruaud Larose is back on target. The wine was made from blending 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot and 9% Cabernet Franc.
December 11, 2020 - Possibly the best Gruaud since the 1986, certainly better than the 2016. Only time will tell whether it's finally back at the level of the wines Gruaud made for most of the 20th century but for the first time in awhile it seems like it could have the raw materials to get there. It still has the rugged, muscular tannins that modern trends have tried to pass by, but there is both stuffing and surface appeal to match that haven't been present lately. The fruit is a dark obsidian black and manages to show off a gloss and sheen even beneath those rough tannins. It's solid and impenetrable but feels densely stuffed so this is one of those wines where we'll have to be patient watching it unfurl from the inside out.