One of the great Bordeaux of the 1982 vintage
One of the most powerful, massive wines of the vintage is the 1982 Gruaud Larose
William Kelley, robertparker.com, December 2022
1982 Château Gruaud-Larose
£4,550 per 12 bottles in bond
Condition with regard to mature fine wines is everything, particularly when they are 44 years old. I am pleased to offer one case of a truly great Bordeaux that ranks among the finest Left Bank wines I have ever tasted, and it is not even a First Growth.
1982 was a justifiably celebrated Bordeaux vintage, producing a host of legendary wines. Oddly, however, Château Gruaud-Larose, the sprawling Saint-Julien estate, significantly outperformed expectations and delivered one of the wines of the vintage.
In my honest opinion, it has never quite reached these heights again and this remarkable 1982 continues to impress. Complex, refined, focused and elegant, it possesses that rare combination of seamless texture and effortless balance that makes great Bordeaux so magical.
Château Gruaud-Larose has long occupied an unusual place in Bordeaux. Classified as a Second Growth in 1855, it is one of the largest estates in Saint-Julien and, at its best, has often produced wines that rival far more prestigious names. The 1982 stands as the greatest example I have encountered, a wine that comfortably transcends its classification.
With wines of this age, condition is everything. Some cases currently offered on the market look as though they have been through a hedge backwards, with heavily scuffed labels, variable fill levels and, in some instances, signs of seepage. Some have levels barely into the neck. Unsurprisingly, prices vary dramatically. No two cases are truly alike and arriving at a definitive market price for a wine of this age is virtually impossible.
The case I am offering is a case of 1982 Château Gruaud-Larose at £4,550 per 12 bottles in bond and it looks exceptionally good. The original wooden case is pristine; there are no signs of seepage and fill levels are both high and remarkably consistent. Given that standards of storage and provenance management were considerably less rigorous in the 1980s than they are today, I suspect there are relatively few cases in the market that remain in such attractive condition.
William Kelley awarded the wine 96 points in 2022, but if I were operating a scoring system of my own, I would be inclined to go higher. The last two bottles I have tasted certainly merited a higher score and served as a reminder of just how remarkable this wine can be.
Kelley also references the Brettanomyces character that is present in the wine. He is correct to do so. It is a feature that can be found in a number of leading Bordeaux from this era, including wines such as 1990 Montrose, and one that tends to divide opinion. Whether one regards it as an imperfection or part of the wine's personality, it forms part of the character of many traditionally made Bordeaux from this period.
For those less familiar with the term, Brettanomyces is a naturally occurring yeast that can impart earthy, leathery and slightly wild notes to a wine. It was far more common in traditional Bordeaux of this era than it is today. Some dislike it, others regard it as part of the character of mature claret. I fall firmly into the latter camp in the case of this wine.
Personally, I have never found it distracting here. If anything, it seems woven into a wine of extraordinary complexity, depth and individuality. Perfection can sometimes be a rather sterile concept in wine. The greatest mature wines often carry the fingerprints of a different era, and the 1982 Gruaud-Larose certainly does. When everything comes together, it remains one of the most compelling and memorable bottles of mature Bordeaux I have encountered.
William Kelley's note reads as follows:
One of the most powerful, massive wines of the vintage is the 1982 Gruaud Larose, a full-bodied, broad and concentrated effort redolent of ripe black fruits, loamy soil, smoked meats, leather, espresso roast and hints of cigar wrapper. Rich, layered and expansive, its deep core of ripe, fleshy fruit is framed by sweet, powdery tannins. As ever with the wines of the Cordier era, the fly in the ointment is that the wine's wild, somewhat animal profile is strongly marked by the presence of Brettanomyces, yet the 1982's intensely characterful, singular style means that I am personally able to overlook that defect. Still youthful, and actually evolving more slowly than the brilliant 1986, this is likely to number among the longer-lived wines of the vintage. Drink 2021-2045
All the signals seem to suggest that this case should easily find a new home and I really hope that it shines as I know it to be a gem of a wine.