Gruaud Larose 1982

The color is still opaque garnet/plum/purple. The wine shows licorice, copious quantities of blackcurrants and a hint of licorice, earth and tar. The wine is full-bodied, almost painfully extracted, but the sweet tannin and voluptuous texture that is so much a hallmark of this great vintage are all present in this amazing wine that seems ageless. It will hit 50 years in great shape.

One of the most powerful, massive wines of the vintage is the 1982 Gruaud Larose, a full-bodied, broad and concentrated effort redolent of ripe black fruits, loamy soil, smoked meats, leather, espresso roast and hints of cigar wrapper. Rich, layered and expansive, its deep core of ripe, fleshy fruit is framed by sweet, powdery tannins. As ever with the wines of the Cordier era, the fly in the ointment is that the wine's wild, somewhat animal profile is strongly marked by the presence of Brettanomyces, yet the 1982's intensely characterful, singular style means that I am personally able to overlook that defect. Still youthful, and actually evolving more slowly than the brilliant 1986, this is likely to number among the longer-lived wines of the vintage.

This bottle of 1982 Gruaud-Larose came direct from the château cellars. It is just pure joy on the nose with fabulous scents of black fruit, hung game (less so than previous bottles), clove and a faint aroma of a stately home. It manages to offer both ample fruit and life-affirming complexity. The palate has aged little since I last tasted it; there's more red fruit here, with freshly rolled tobacco, cedar and a touch more spiciness on the finish than previous tastings, with a sweet yet structured finish. This may well represent the finest bottle that I have encountered.

The 1982 Gruaud Larose is notable simply because it is still not at its plateau of maturity! This wine, at 33, ranks as one of the all-time greatest Gruaud Laroses ever made - right up there with the 1961 and 1945. The wine is dense purple/garnet, offering notes of beef blood, forest floor, oodles of blackcurrants and blackberry, in an almost primordial, concentrated, dense style. This is an amazing wine, which could be a 50- to 100-year wine when all is said and done.