TN: 1990 Ch. Gruaud Larose

WINE TALK
1

I served this blindly to my brown-bag group last night. Decanted about 45 minutes ahead.

The nose was a funny mixture – some rich St. Julien cherries but also a trace of something a little vegetal (celery/green beans). A bit of lead pencil.

In the mouth, there is lots of body, tannin and acid. A bit more acid than I expected in a GL or a 1990, actually. A tad gamey; a fair deal of unresolved tannins, but they’re not harsh. Thinner than I would have expected at the back and on the finish. Acid stand out a bit at the end.

Overall, this was younger and more acidic, and with less fruit, than I expected. I found it a bit disappointing. I’d say 87 points. Others liked it better, even though most didn’t guess Bordeaux.

2

I had this for the first time in a big tasting in 2013 with mostly 80’s Bordeaux, and I too was let down.

Our bottle was low acidity, roasted and yet lean and with a sickly quality to the fruit. Big fail given the hype for this wine in 1990.

3

How disappointing. I have not had this for a long time but last time it was showing good promise.

I was similarly let down by a poor showing of Cos D’Estournel 1990 a few months ago which was sloppy and unfocused.

4

Welcome to the board, Ian! Great to have you posting here.

The bottle I had was at Ramon’s tasting in NYC, the one that Maureen attended. I see that there’s some bottle variation on CellarTracker, hopefully there are better bottles than the ones in this thread.

5

Regarding 90’s from bottles properly stored I had an excellent GL 3 or 4 years ago and out of 3 bottles of Cos 2 were very good while 1 had a lesser performance.

A recent Grand Mayne was at a towering peak right now. A very fine old school St. Emilion without overipeness.