Château Gruaud-Larose
The Saturday at the end of the primeurs tasting week is a time to wind down, both for the proprietors, winemakers, technical directors and other staff who have been busy pulling corks and pouring their recently bottled barrel samples, and also for the writers, journalists and wine merchants (and those who are just there for the parties) who have spent the last four or five days immersed in those very same samples. Most of the latter group will have left on Friday evening, eager to fly home and probably enjoy a lazy Saturday lie-in (and I don’t blame them). I tend to stick around on Saturday though, because the châteaux and vineyards, which have been bustling with visitors (in the case of the former) and horses (in the case of the latter – funny how they always appear during the primeurs week) are deserted. Bordeaux is suddenly void of any sign of human life, a huge viticultural Marie Celeste. I often take advantage of this weekend serenity to update my personal bank of Bordeaux photographs.
The focus of my end-of-primeurs photography day in 2015 was St Julien, so having snapped away at Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Château Léoville-Las Cases and its Léoville neighbours, as well as Château Saint-Pierre, Château Gloria and the less well-known Château du Glana, all dotted along the D2 as it heads northwards first through Beychevelle and then St Julien itself, I headed inland away from the main road. Here in the western reaches of the appellation we find Château Lagrange, and Château Talbot of course, but before I came to either I drew my lawnmower-engined hire car to a halt at the entrance to Château Gruaud-Larose. And I stared. And then I stared some more.
