critic reviews
The 1986 Gruaud Larose has quite a powerful and convincing nose of lively black fruit, sandalwood and Montecristo cigars. It has mellowed in recent years, gaining a little complexity and confidence. The palate is medium-bodied with a ferrous opening, black pepper, clove and a touch of leather, so fully mature and just missing some fruit on the austere finish. As I wrote before, it is an Englishman's claret through and through. Tasted at the château.
Still remarkably youthful, my most recent bottle of the 1986 Gruaud Larose exhibited an impressively opaque hue, followed by aromas of blackcurrants, cigar ash, loamy soil, pencil shavings and subtle hints of smoked meats. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's a rich but tightly wound wine, with a deep core of fruit, lively acids and an abundance of powdery structuring tannin. Incredible as it may seem, it's comparatively advanced bottles of this 1986 that are drinking best today, as pristinely stored examples with perfect corks are still almost painfully youthful.