TN: 1985 Château Gruaud Larose (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien)

[Blanquito]

1985 Château Gruaud Larose - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (7/5/2012)
First try of this vintage. From the get-go, there's a beautiful, big, expressive, complex, wild nose. A true classic claret bouquet. It's a little feral, with sweet compote, lead pencil, old wood, sour cherry, a lovely fresh anise-camphor-mint note. With food and air, some roasted-smoked poblano shows up. On the palate, I get lots of black tea with lovely bottle sweetness, soft yet tarry tannins, and a long tongue drying finish. On the savory end of things, with some beef jus, old school stylings. Overall, a tad dilute mid palate that comes between the beautiful sweet attack and slightly bitter finish. 95 pts bouquet, 90-91 palate, 92 pts overall. (92 pts.)

[DavidG]

Sounds very nice Patrick, even if it wasn't killer on the mid palate. The style sounds very appealing. I didn't buy enough '85s, and have drunk them all.

[Claudius2]

Guys
In the mid 90s I bought 4 cases of this wine at auction very cheaply.
it was a house wine for the next year or so, and it was quite delicious.
The other house wine was a half a pallet of Faiveley Burgundies (1er and GC) I bought for a song.
Medium bodied, not overtly oaky, just lots of sweet fruit and some cedar, graphite and tobacco leaf at that stage.
It was feral at that stage, nor could I recall camphor but it was years ago.
Would be happy to drink the wine every night.