Château Gruaud Larose

Château Gruaud Larose traces its foundation to 1725, when Father Gruaud established the estate before it passed to his nephew, the Chevalier de Larose. The 1855 classification placed Gruaud Larose in its second tier, and it remains one of Saint-Julien’s historic classified estates. Its 82 hectares form a single block of Garonne gravel, a remarkably intact vineyard footprint that the estate reports as unchanged since 1855.

The Merlaut family acquired Gruaud Larose in 1997 and began a far-reaching renewal of the vineyard, with Cabernet Sauvignon again central to the estate’s plantings. Organic conversion began in 2019 and certification arrived with the 2022 vintage, alongside hedges, cover crops, winter sheep grazing, beehives and other biodiversity measures. Gruaud Larose is compelling because its scale and pedigree have not prevented it from approaching the land as an ecosystem; history here is a foundation for continued work, not a museum piece.