Sarget de Gruaud 2006

Château Gruaud Larose Sarget de Gruaud Larose

Settling in to watch the Presidential Debates I pulled from the cellar a vintage Bordeaux to sip with a collection of artisan cheeses, charcuterie, fresh berries, nuts and roasted beets.

Château Gruaud Larose is one of the most historic estates in the Médoc and was on our select set of St Julien producers we targeted to visit during our trip to the region.

This is the second label of a producer we know well with the flagship premiere label being one of the key holdings in our cellar collection consisting of more than a dozen vintages spanning three decades dating back to 1980 including the birth year vintages of each of our kids, 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1990. 

We hold many vintages in large format bottles including 3 liter double magnums and a five liter Jeroboam that we served at daughter Erin's and son-in-law Johnny's wedding in this label’s vintage year 2006.

Indeed, our collection of large format bottles was one of the keys to our cellar collection being featured in Wine Spectator Magazine’s Collector section back in June of 2001.

Our visit to Chateau was one of the highlights our visit to the St Julien region of Bordeaux back in 2019. I wrote about that visit and featured this producer in detail in these pages in this blogpost at that time - 

A Visit to Château Gruaud-Larose.

This label is the second wine of Gruaud Larose, named for the Sarget family, historic early ancestral owners of the estate. It  provides value and near-term drinkability for those looking for a classic though ripe St-Julien. Named after Baron Jean Auguste Sarget, one of the men who purchased the Gruaud-Larose property in 1812 and whose family managed the estate for the following fifty years. 

Over the next century, the estate would be divided, with a portion being controlled by the Sarget family. The estate has since been reunited and the château that Sarget built stands as the centerpiece of the property. The estate introduced the second wine in 1979.

Label from vintage tasted
at the Chateau,

This, the second wine of Gruaud Larose, provides value and near-term drinkability for those looking for a classic though ripe St-Julien. Named after Baron Jean Auguste Sarget, one of the men who purchased the Gruaud-Larose property in 1812 and whose family managed the estate for the following fifty years.

Over the next century, the estate would be divided, with a portion being controlled by the Sarget family. The estate has since been reunited and the château that Sarget built stands as the centerpiece of the property. The estate introduced the second wine in 1979.

This is a classic Left Bank Bordeaux Blend of predominant Cabernet Sauvignon, 60%, Merlot, 30%, Cabernet Franc 5.5%, Petit Verdot 3% and Malbec 1.5%.

Tonight, this was a bit disappointing and didn’t meet my expectations. At eighteen years, the label, foil and importantly the cork and fill level were all perfect. This showed no diminution of age whatsoever and I thought it would be at the apex of its drinking profile and window, and perhaps it was. 

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, somewhat flabby and disjointed black currant fruit were overshadowed by notes of tobacco, cedar, leather, earth and smoke with a modest somewhat muted fruit finish. 

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?364398

https://www.gruaud-larose.com/en/wines/sarget-2006/

A Visit to Château Gruaud-Larose

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