Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Concentrated and elegant with a great harmony of dry tannins and ripeness (but no hint of overripeness), this has a long finish with a lot of drive and enormous freshness. You could drink this now with red meat, but it’s got decades ahead of it.
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Wine Enthusiast
The ripe fruit that is a hallmark of this vintage at this estate has been maintained along with solid tannins and richness. This has both tannins and concentration although the fruit is the thing, making a wine that will develop relatively quickly. Drink from 2023.
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Decanter
Very fine florality and purity on first impression – less of the meatiness of past vintages. The classic Gruaud-Larose smoothness is there along with added precision. Great attention to detail; a very fine claret.
Barrel Sample. -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Gruaud Larose simply sparkles with bright, vibrant red cherries, ripe raspberries and fresh black currants notes with underlying suggestions of cinnamon stick, rose petals, fallen leaves and dried Provence herbs. Medium to full-bodied and possessing tightly wound red and black fruits layers intermingled with spicy accents, it has a firm, grainy frame and great vivacity, finishing long and perfumed. I'm probably being too conservative with my score here and expect this could blossom in 4-6 years into an even more impressive beauty!
Rating: 93+ -
Wine Spectator
This has a serious graphite spine, along with beautiful beams of black currant, bitter plum and blackberry paste flavors. Dried anise, black tea and licorice snap notes lurk in the background. The finish is long and gilded with a violet accent. Best from 2021 through 2035.
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.