We had a fantastic dinner at the Red Lion in East Chisenbury (www.redlionfreehouse.com )on Saturday evening. As always the food and service were brilliant and we are lucky that they occasionally let us bring a bottle or two for a very reasonable corkage fee. I had not tried a bottle of Ch Gruaud Larose 1996 for a year or two and it has blossomed into a really delicious wine. All of the angularity has disappeared leaving soft plummy, blackberry fruit alongside herb and liquorice notes. There is a real complexity on the palate and a lovely velvety mouthfeel. The wine really opened up in the glass and as is so often the case with the best bottles the last mouthful was the best and left you wanting more!
One thing worth noting is that this wine receives a relatively disappointing Parker Score (89) which means that its price has not escalated to the same extent as some other wines from the vintage. In my view this is one of the occasions where Parker has got it slightly wrong, so making the wine a relative bargain!
No comments:
Post a Comment