Chateau Gruaud-Larose 2006

side view of Gruaud Larose

As I had about 1 h free between the visits of Saint-Pierre and Leoville Poyferre in Saint Julien, and seeing the signs on the main road pointing to its direction, I decided to stop and visit Chateau Gruaud-Larose. As I had no prior appointment, I just parked the car outside the property and took some pictures of the vines and the chateau itself. The garden looks perfect, everything lined up with an almost microscopical attention.

There was a group of Asians in the famous tower of Gruaud-Larose and is no surprise as this producer has quite a good reputation in Asia. The soil is typically Saint-Julien: gravelly- Cabernet Sauvignon benefits from this type of soil and the green harvesting was already done on June 24th.

Gruaud-Larose produces wines that might not be accessible in their youth, but are capable of aging 20+ years. While it lost its shine for a certain period in the last couple of decades, it started to emerge back as a reputable producer. Vintages like 2000 and 2005 produced very good wines, while 2010 was also rated very high.

I didn’t visit the property, nor tasted any of its wines while in Bordeaux, but I did open a bottle yesterday that I had in my cellar. While considered a lesser vintage after the stellar 2005, the 2006 produced some classic wines in all of Bordeaux that offer great drinking pleasure for considerably less money than the ’05s.

2006 Chateau Gruaud-Larose Saint-Julien

Youthful red garnet color. A developed and youthful nose, sweet, with smoke, fresh red currant and black cherry, coffee, dry herbs and cedar. Medium to full bodied, balanced, with assertive tannins, and gorgeous layers of tobacco, cigar’s ash, green coffee bean, tar and perfumed black tea, mouthwatering acidity, good mouth-feel, finishing with a beautiful mix of blackberry washing the cheeks, and continued with a pure black tea-espresso bitterness in the medium plus aftertaste. A very young wine with a long life ahead. Love it. 13% alc (91/100)

A wine that craves to be paired with rich food, as the tannins can easily balance and wash any fat on the palate. I am thinking about pork dishes and slow cooked beef stews. A wine that is not rich in fruit flavors and is more on the classical side of Old School Bordeaux.