TN: Gruaud, Gruaud, and more Gruaud

Wow, that is backward! Recent notes I have seen (Bill S. IIRC) had suggested that this was nearer to maturity than yours sounds like. Perhaps a cooler cellar is the explanation, but in any event I'm hanging on to my single bottle (thanks, Jean!) for a bit more time...

Hmmm.. I might end up opening this before the '82, the way things are shaping up.

Yes, that's been my impression, too, Dale. They just really haven't been on form since the '89 IMO.

Mark Lipton

Dale, how long an ager would you say this is? There was some critic that said this was still backward (with a toughness right now), but maybe I ought to visit this within the next couple of years (have a couple of bottles, but none tasted yet). The 1983 GL was *very* nice about 8 years ago.

Best,

Mark S

I also have some, and am not putting in the "must drink now" queue. :)

I don't think this will have any problem reaching 15, but 25 would be pushing it. My guess is it will shut down a little bit (probably not hard) soon, remain that way for six or eight, and drink at its peak from maybe

2012-2018. But that's just a seat of my pants guess.

Boy, I'd really like to see a thoroughly thought out, well-reasoned, analytical estimation of it's ageability ;-) LMAO!

Cheers, Gary

Pretty impressive vertical! I had a '62 Gruaud a little while ago. The levels are difficult to discern on the odd shaped bottles in the

60's, but it worked out to be about top-shoulder.

The wine was garnet in colour, just starting to go amber at the edges. A lovely earthy but fragrant smell, bit like sticking your nose in a box of shiitake mushrooms. I was a bit worried about the wine losing all fruit before we could drink it, so it was not decanted. I'm glad I did this, but the first glass or two were not as good as the later glasses - obviously needed time to breathe. Ironically by the time dinner was over the last glasses were nicest - about an hour in the open bottle.

The palate was succulent and typically St Julien in being a little 'sweet-centred' (the best I have heard it described) I have to say the fruit was fading from the '62 (definitely some astringency on the finish), but I got the impression it was a fragrant elegant wine in its younger days (anybody remember trying '62 back then?) would have been gorgeous back in 1985 (I was only six then) !!!

Now, who's got a bottle of '61 and an evening free? =)

Dom

The 62's were somewhat under-rated early on since they came just after the outstanding 59 and 61 vintages. However many of the 62s were very good wines and held for a long time. I have not had the 62 Gruaud-Larose, but Michael Broadbent still rated it 4 out of 5 stars at his last reported tasting in 1995. I had the 61 Gruaud-Larose recently and gave a TN here. It still is in top form, is one of the better 61s, and likely will hold well several more years if it has been well stored. I have had both the 61 and 62 Ducru-Beaucaillou, but not recently. The

61 was better, but the 62 was not far behind. Many of the 62s will not last as long as the 61s. However there are likely several 62s still drinking well, although many might have been a bit better a few years ago.

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

Ron, I'm never REALLY surprsed at showings of older wines. The old "there are no great old wines, just great bottles" is very true. The vagaries of cork quality (I'm not talking TCA, just quality of seal), storage conditions, shipping*, etc make it hard to predict. This bottle had an excellent fill. The owner (in the business) is very good about storage, but bought this I think he said in 1980. So it was out there for a while. And for that matter some liked it better than me. There are threads with other participants' comments on a couple of sites.

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• let's remember that shipping in reefers is a fairly modern innovation. Before negociants tried to not ship in middle of summer, but if a boat ran into an "Indian summer", so be it. And very few collectors had active heating units- no big deal in England, but in Southern US....