Château Gloria, St Julien, 2018
Gloria 2024 is quite ambitious, displaying notes of spice and earth alongside lots of bramble fruit and subtle sous bois nuances. There’s an impressive core of concentrated black fruit and graphite. If the tannins relax during élevage, this should develop into a solid St Julien.
critic reviews
The 2018 Gloria is deep garnet-purple in color. It gallops out with energetic notes of redcurrants, wild blueberries, and warm cassis, plus hints of rose oil, licorice, and tar. Full-bodied, the palate is jam-packed with black fruit layers, framed by ripe, velvety tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and lifted.
Mint leaf, marzipan, fennel, smoked earth, fig, freshly grated black truffle, and a ton of cassis fruit. This is young but complex, with a bright future. The only wine in the vertical that is above 14% in alcohol, a reflection of the vintage, and a reminder in fact of just how balanced and old school St Julien is almost every year. Good stuff, full of life. 40% new oak. Harvest September 20 to October 1. Remi di Constanzo technical director.
The 2018 Gloria is a strong effort in this lush, fruit-driven Bordeaux vintage. Offering up aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants and licorice, it's medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with an ample core of fruit, ripe acids and sweet tannins. Purists will gravitate to the 2019 and 2016, but this demonstrative, hedonistic 2018 can already be approached with pleasure.
The 2018 Gloria has a wonderful, harmonious bouquet of copious blackberry, briary, cedar and tobacco notes that just feels so... effortless. The very harmonious palate offers pure black fruit laced with graphite. Displaying moderate weight and fine acidity, and quite linear and focused on the finish, this is a very classy Gloria that may warrant a higher score down the line.