2016 Château Gloria, St Julien, Bordeaux

2016 Château Gloria, St Julien, Bordeaux

Product: 20161010598
Prices start from £220.00 per case Buying options
2016 Château Gloria, St Julien, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
Case format
Availability
Price per case
6 x 75cl bottle
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £220.00
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £220.00
3 x 150cl magnum
BBX marketplace BBX 5 cases £235.00
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Description

Rich and bold, the wine is dark maroon. It’s not shy, with big blackcurrant fruit. There is an energy on the mid-palate, real vitality. It finishes with silky fruit and grippy tannins.

Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 30%, Petit Verdot 3% and Cabernet Franc 7%.

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Antonio Galloni, Vinous96
The 2016 Gloria is one of the undisputed stars of this vintage. Rich, deep and explosive, the 2016 possesses tremendous intensity in all of its dimensions. Sweet red cherry, tobacco, menthol, liquorice and dried rose petal all add complexity. In 2016 Gloria is a real head-turner. It should be a fabulous value as well. There is not much else to say.
Antonio Galloni, Vinous (January 2019)

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Wine Advocate93/100
The 2016 Gloria is comprised of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot aged 14 months in 42% new and 58% one-year-old French oak. Deep garnet-purple in color, it sings of plum preserves, warm cassis and dark chocolate with touches of tobacco, bay leaves and lavender with a waft of dusty soil. The palate is medium-bodied, elegant and savory in the mouth with loads of layers and a lifted finish.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 30/11/2018 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20
Sweet and energetic and very glossy. Just a little austere on the end. Bone dry. Quite demanding. Just not quite enough ripe fruit for the not inconsiderable tannins.
Jancis Robinson MW (spring 2017)  Read more
Wine Spectator93-96/100
Shows a flash of mint before giving way to a torrent of blueberry, blackberry and cassis flavors, pushed by energetic acidity and juicy, brambly grip. Plum cake and anise line the finish, along with a flash of tobacco. Lots going on here. 
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator (spring 2017) Read more
Decanter94/100
Immediately on the nose you get the rich structure of the fruit, rippling with texture and life. It has just the right amount of drama, offering a tight and well-focussed delivery. This is beautiful, showing great underlying freshness and grip with real tension and minerality. Drinking Window 2027-2050.
Jane Anson, Decanter, (spring 2017) Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Gloria

Chateau Gloria

Château Gloria is an unclassified St-Julien property that produces clarets that equal in quality those from the more prestigious classed growths. Henri Martin, a cooper by upbringing, took over the property in 1942 and began purchasing plots of vineyards from classed growth properties such as Gruaud-Larose, Talbot, Lagrange and Léoville-Barton. By the mid 1960s he had 50 hectares spread across the appellation. In 1982 he purchased Château St-Pierre and thus realised his lifetime ambition of owning a Grand Cru Classé property.

Henri Martin died in 1991 and Gloria is now run by his son-in-law Jean-Louis Triaud. The wine is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. It is aged in a combination of large oak foudres and small oak barrels (50% new).

Gloria produces a wine that is typically deep in colour and rich, cassis-laden and cedary on the palate. It normally needs 7-10 years of bottle age to show at its best.
 

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St Julien

St Julien

St Julien is the smallest of the "Big Four" Médoc communes. Although, without any First Growths, St Julien is recognised to be the most consistent of the main communes, with several châteaux turning out impressive wines year after year. 

St Julien itself is much more of a village than Pauillac and almost all of the notable properties lie to its south. Its most northerly château is Ch. Léoville Las Cases (whose vineyards actually adjoin those of Latour in Pauillac) but,  further south, suitable vineyard land gives way to arable farming and livestock until the Margaux appellation is reached.  

The soil is gravelly and finer than that of Pauillac, and without the iron content which gives Pauillac its stature. The homogeneous soils in the vineyards (which extend over a relatively small area of just over 700 hectares) give the commune a unified character.

The wines can be assessed as much by texture as flavour, and there is a sleek, wholesome character to the best. Elegance, harmony and perfect balance and weight, with hints of cassis and cedar, are what epitomise classic St Julien wines. At their very best they combine Margaux’s elegance and refinement with Pauillac’s power and substance.

Ch. Léoville Las Cases produces arguably the most sought-after St Julien, and in any reassessment of the 1855 Classification it would almost certainly warrant being elevated to First Growth status.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Léoville Las CasesCh.Léoville Barton, Ch Léoville Poyferré, Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Ch Langoa Barton, Ch Gruaud Larose, Ch. Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Beychevelle

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.