Winemaker Notes
Blend: 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of strawberries and cherries follow through to a full body, silky tannins and a tangy finish. Fresh and clean. Linear and pretty. Purity of fruit is impressive. Drink in 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a powerful, dry wine showing solid tannins, powered by a background of perfumed black currant flavors. A beautiful balance of fruit and structure will develop down the line. Barrel Sample: 91-93
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Wine Spectator
Shows a perfumy hint, with black tea and allspice notes, followed by steeped plum and blackberry fruit. Light anise and apple wood details fill in on the finish. Best from 2020 through 2030.
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Jeb Dunnuck
While I wasn’t able to taste the 2015, the 2014 Graud Larose is an attractive, classically styled Saint-Julien that has ripe currant fruits as well as lots of herbal/tobacco undertones, cedary spice, and earthy aromas and flavors. It’s medium-bodied, concentrated, and texture, with a chewy, rustic, endearing style. I like its balance and this old-school beauty will keep for at least 15-20 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Gruaud Larose has a light and airy bouquet at first, one that gathers depth with aeration. It is a little conservative at the moment, dusky black fruit mixed with sage and cedar. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, slightly angular tannin. It is certainly fresh in the mouth, although it feels a tad pinched towards the finish; therefore, afford this 4-5 years in bottle to develop more substance and ambition.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.