Bordeaux wine

The wine remained good and was popular with the nobility at it was La Rose that claimed his wine was "Le Roi des Vins, le Vin des Rois", a declaration that remains on the label to this day.

The Gruaud-Larose estate amounts to 150 hectares of the St Julien appellation, of which 82 hectares are planted to vines; the bulk of the estate lies around Baron Sarget’s chateau, separated from the Gironde by the small village of Beychevelle, and sandwiched between the vineyards of Branaire-Ducru and Lagrange.

The terroir is typical for the region, deep Quaternary gravel, planted with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec. The vines average around 45 years of age, and are planted at a density of 10000 vines/ha.

The grand vin is Chateau Gruaud-Larose, of which there are about 25000 cases produced per annum, and the second wine, introduced in 1979, is Sarget de Gruaud-Larose, of which about 16000 cases are produced. Obviously the exact proportions varies with the quality of the vintage.

Gruaud-Larose has often been described as a super-second, placing it in with the group of Deuxième Cru Classé properties that challenge the elite Premier Cru Classé estates for supremacy in Bordeaux. I must confess that whereas I see the quality in Gruaud-Larose, which has long been produced in a firm, masculine style, more recently with perhaps more finesse, I do not think it the leading challenger just yet; that title falls to Léoville-Las-Cases.