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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...
Wine Information
PPELLATION : AOC SAINT-JULIEN Second cru classé en 1855
AREA UNDER VINES : 82 ha
SOIL : Garonne gravel from the first quaternary, settled more than 600 000 years ago.
2011 CLIMATE : Atypical vintage: mild winter, hot spring, summer with low temperatures. Water stress in the vines early September followed by warm and dry weather. These final favourable circumstances allowed a harvest with an excellent level of maturity and perfect sani...
Vintage 2011
The 2011 vintage is not easy to handle.
Smith Haut Lafitte not only makes great white and red wine from Bordeaux in Pessac Léognan, they are also at the cutting edge of technology. They were one of the first Bordeaux wine producers to begin using optical sorting, which came in handy with the difficult 2011 Bordeaux harvest. Fabien Teitgen, long-time general manager, joined us for a long detailed conversation about what happened at Smith Hau...
