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Wine Description
The Story
The Gruaud Larose terroir is truly remarkable and unique. It is a single vineyard of 80 hectares with gravels from the Gironde estuary, dating from the Mindel Ist and Mindel IInd (about 700 000 years ago), and that in some places are over 18 feet deep. The soil is very poor and sandy, and therefore does not hold water. Drainage is one of the major concerns of a conscientious vine-grower.
It is also an important factor at Gruaud Larose where nineteenth-century underground pottery drains have been found. The natural draining system due to the poor quality of soils, from the hot and dry summers, and mostly from their position on the highest plateau of Saint-Julien - 18 metres high from the sea level -, constantly exposed to the north and west winds, favour both soil and optimum maturity for grapes. In fact, Nature has given here a magical aspect to this unique estate vineyard.
Vintage 1905
Bordeaux: Harvest from September 14th. Abundant crop of average quality – the wines were elegant rather than tannic, but very enjoyable. Rain during harvest meant initialy high hopes for the vintage were tempered. Fraud was affecting the wines of Bordeaux, with Nathaniel Johnston, president of the Syndicate des Grands Crus Classés du Médoc reporting that a wine grower in southern France was labelling his wines ‘Médauc’ in an attempt to pass them off as being from Bordeaux.