1986 Château Gruaud Larose St. Julien Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note

Brawny, beefy, masculine, yet, regal with its layers of tobacco-drenched red fruits, leafy garden herbs, forest floor, and greenery. Full-bodied, chewy, and deep, this is one of the best examples from this challenging vintage. Popped and poured, this is simply fabulous and character-filled. Drink from 2023-2045.

4,174 Views   Tasted Sep 4, 2023

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One of the better wines from 1986, the wine opens with cigar box, tobacco leaf, smoke, green forest leaf, and peppery, red currants. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, tannic, robust, generous, and spicy, with an herb and tobacco, centric palate, finishing with crisp, sweet, red fruits. Give it 1-2 hours in the decanter and it will be ready to go.

Just a beauty. This was the best showing yet for this wine. Decanted about 90 minutes, the glorious nose with its cedar, cherry pipe tobacco, cigar wrapper, sweet red fruit and wet earth scents hit all the right notes. Full-bodied, concentrated and showing none of the harshness or typical austerity of the vintage, the wine tasted and felt great with its muscular, refined character. We took about 2 hours to finish the bottle and it was a stunner from start to finish. If you have a bottle, give it some air and let it rip!

4 hours in the decanter helped bring this often, tannic beast into the zone. With notes of cedar, tobacco leaf, forest leaf, smoke and cassis, the wine offered power, structure, depth of flavor and a full-bodied blast of dark red, chewy fruits that hung in there. This is a super example of classic Bordeaux that is a pleasure to drink. You can easily hold this for 20 more years or pop a cork tonight.

Tobacco leaf, cigar wrapper, red fruits and forest notes create the nose. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, concentrated and loaded with layers of ripe, earthy, tobacco-stained fruits with a hint of green. The tannins remain firm, but they are fading, leaving with you a ripe, crisp, red berry finish. Decanting of at least 1 hour helps the wine preform at its best.

With 2 hours of air, this was stellar. The nose, with its strong aromas of cedar, cigar box, tobacco and cassis lets you know you're in the Left Bank. Full bodied, concentrated, with a boatload of juicy cassis on the palate, there is a touch of dryness in the endnote, typical of 1986, but it does not overwhelm the qualities in the rest of the experience. There is no hurry to drink this, as I imagine it will be providing pleasure for at least another 20-30 more years, of well stored.

If the aromas of a cigar store, cedar closets and cassis, a mouthful of ripe, fresh blackberries, concentration of flavor and intensity, with regal, elegant, masculine textures and a long, smoky, spice filled, currant finish is a turn on, you came to the right place. Avoiding the extreme tannic character of the vintage, 2 hours of decanting was just right. The wine improved in the glass until we reached the last drop. This is so easy to drink, we finished the bottle far too quickly.

Deep ruby in color, which is amazing considering this Bordeaux wine is 25 years old. A complex nose filled stuffed with tobacco, forest floor, blackberry, mineral, barnyard, smoke, mushroom and earthy aromas. Big, powerful, tannic and mouth filling, the wine is packed with ripe, crunchy Cabernet Sauvignon. Still young, with tannin to resolve, this outstanding Gruaud Larose could be a 100 year wine!

The tannins are not rustic, but they remain firm. The wine is worth waiting for as it's filled with cassis, tobacco, forest and spice aromatics. This concentrated, mouthfulling wine has a great future to look forward to for consumers with patience and a taste for well made, old school wines.

Huge layers of concentrated fruit, spice and tannin are in abundance. This full bodied, large scaled wine is classic and classy. Needs time.