Tasted blind at Southwold ’06 Bordeaux tasting. This is an impressive showing for Gruaud-Larose under blind conditions. It has a reserved, cedar, leafy nose with good definition and poise with good lift – very Pauillac in style with the Cabernet driving it along. The palate is full-bodied, very well balanced with good acidity. Firm tannins, ripe and elegant, very well poised on the briary finish. Charming.

Initially dominated by tannins this wine is now evolving to show a softer easier side. With sweet fruit and a delicious refreshing juicy black currant acidity the tannins are now the base of an approachable wine offering considerable pleasure. R.V.

Very classic in nature. Red with slight bricking at the rim. The nose offers sweet red and black fruit with just a kiss of fresh herbs and spices. There are underlying notes of espresso and mixed earth that give it depth. The palate is medium bodied and has layered tannins and good acidity to keep things lively and interesting through to the finish. Drink this now through 2035.

As was the case with Beychevelle, it had been several vintages since I last tasted a young example of Gruaud Larose, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the 2006. I had lost faith in the style of this property in the mid-1980s, as the wines seemed excessively forced to me already at that time, with more toasty oak than I personally care for in my claret. But a few of those vintages have aged better than I might have supposed, and the 2006 looks even more judiciously crafted than those more “bruising” styled wines of the late ‘80s. The 2006 Gruaud offers up an impressively complex nose of cassis, tobacco, a touch of tarriness, gravelly soil tones and a refined framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, complex and quite suave on the attack, with good mid-palate depth, moderate tannins and lovely shape and length on the complex and well-balanced finish. A very stylish example of the ’06 vintage. (Drink between 2018-2040)