Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Glorious Gruaud and Gloria
Let’s move on now to Gruaud-Larose, a wine for which many drinkers have something of a soft spot I believe. My own experiences with it have been mixed; a tasting of older vintages from the 1970s and 1980s, back in 2003, proved that this was a property capable of producing excellent or at least worthy wines, even in less than stellar years such as 1979 and the dismal 1991 vintage. More recently, the 2000 vintage was a particular success, the wine touted by a number of commentators as a first growth challenger. I wasn’t tasting the primeurs back then, so can’t comment on how the wine showed in its extreme youth but a taste at three years confirmed the general consensus that this was a superb wine. I have a few bottles tucked away in the cellar so I should be able to make some comment on how the wine is performing with some maturity when it comes to next take a look at this fabled vintage.
Having said that, I have found more recent vintages rather less impressive; in superb vintages such as 2009 and 2005 the wines were very good, but still a step behind other similarly ranked properties. And in 2006, for example, there was certainly not much excitement to the wine. There was no such problem with the 2010 Gruaud-Larose though, this being one of my three most highly-ranked wines after the Léovilles. This blend which includes 28% Merlot shows a lot of grippy, finely grained tannins, but also an attractive and rather feminine perfume. It is a charming wine, and yet it is also imbued with a grippy substance and convincing potential for longevity, and this is one which I would happily add to my own cellar (after I have acquired the Léovilles, of course, and having first won a few millions on the lottery before that I think).
