Château Gruaud-Larose

Second Cru Classé since 1855, Château Gruaud Larose owes its name to two families who built up the estate throughout the 18th century. In 1725, Abbé Gruaud laid the foundations of the estate by acquiring 50 hectares of vines, all located on the Saint-Julien Beychevelle plateau. When he died in 1781, his nephew, the Chevalier de Larose, inherited the estate and increased the surface area of planted vines to almost 80 hectares. With no heirs, the estate was sold at auction in 1812 for the modest sum of 210,000 francs (€32,000) to two families, Baron Sarget de Lafontaine and the Bethmann sisters. As they did not agree on how the property should be managed, it was split up in 1865. This split resulted in the production of two wines until 1935, Gruaud Larose Sarget and Gruaud Larose Faure. It was not until 1934, thanks to the Cordier family, that Gruaud Larose was restored to its original form. Between 1983 and 1997, the estate became a subsidiary of institutional groups such as Alcatel Alsthom in 1993, which invested considerable sums in the winemaking facilities (wooden and cement vats, temperature-controlled cellars, wine effluent treatment plant). Since 1997, the Merlaut family has taken over the reins of the estate, stepping up work on the vineyard using organic methods and promoting integrated pest management by not using chemical products such as insecticides and herbicides. Situated on the highest point of Saint-Julien, in a single block, on deep Garonne gravel outcrops dating back to the Quaternary era (around 700,000 years ago), the Gruaud Larose terroir is admirably respected by the team at the château in the wines they make. Like the famous phrase on the Gruaud Larose label proclaiming it to be “the King of Wines, the Wine of Kings”, the Cabernet Sauvignon on this terroir is the king of grape varieties. Thanks to the preservation of its original size, and its ancestral reputation, Château Gruaud Larose is one of the rare historic growths of the Médoc, and more than ever respects its rank as a Second Cru Classé in Saint-Julien.