This 1989 vintage of Gruaud Larose has been showing up a lot lately at on line auctions, as well as retailers.  K and L was carrying it for a long time.  My experience with it has been hit and miss.  I have had some outstanding bottles and some that were past their prime.  The bottle I opened tonight was dry and leathery, the fruit was faded, and the wine seemed to have too much remaining acidity for the amount of fruit.  The wine had some interesting flavors and aromas, typical of old Bordeaux wines, but the overall enjoyment was lacking.

Let me tell you a little secret when you have old wines that are past their prime, but still have some compelling nuances to them.  Blend them with about 40% young California cab.  The resulting wine will usually be pretty good.  The young cab brings plenty of fruit and a powerful bouquet, and you will still maintain some of the cool leather smells, tar smells, and dried herb smells from the old wine.  I did this with my 1989 Gruaud tonight, mixing it with a 2002 Merryvale Reserve Napa Valley cab.  The mix was much greater than the sum of it's parts.

Wine snobs will go beserk when they here of these kinds of blends.  But in my opinion, only a fool will drink an unpleasant wine "just because it's old and rare" but lifeless and boring, when a dash of young cabernet willcompletely rejuvinate the wine.  Sort of like bringing some new doctors or lawyers to a firm populated with old stodgy "past their prime" senior partners who get by on reputation as opposed to performance!  Everyone benefits from the infusion of new blood in these situations.

 

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