Château Gruaud-Larose

Château Gruaud-Larose wears its ambition on its label: le vin des rois, le roi des vins — the wine of kings, the king of wines. A Second Growth in 1855, set back from the river on St-Julien's inland gravel, it makes the appellation's most old-fashioned wine in the best sense: dark, earthy, densely built claret that shrugs off its first decade and rewards the collector who forgets a case in the cellar. Under the Merlaut family, owners since 1997, farming has turned steadily greener without softening the style. Sarget de Gruaud-Larose gives an earlier window into the house character.