CHÂTEAU GLORIA
2015 Cru Bourgeois Saint Julien
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc. Fleshy, rich, very well-done. Good expressive raspberry and blackberry in a velvet feel and even a faint salinity which seems to have a sense of purpose and keeps juice on the finish, and it shows a nice length. Rating: 90-91 L&S (Apr 2016)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2015 Gloria was corked. Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting. Rating: 0 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2025)
This style of vintage really suits Gloria, with its cheerful, exuberant character, silky tannins and clear power. You'll find plenty of precision and bite through the blueberry and cassis fruits, excellent quality, bright, bristling and full of life. The signature of St Julien comes through, and this is softly spoken but with quiet confidence, layering on slate and gunsmoke edges on the finish. 40% new oak, harvest September 21 to October 7. Remi di Constanzo technical director. Drinking range: 2025 - 2043 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Jan 2023)
The 2015 Gloria is another Saint-Julien that has improved over the last 12 months. It has a bolder and more exuberant bouquet than some of its peers, featuring lush blackberry and blueberry fruit and revealing a touch of iodine and crushed violet with aeration. The medium-bodied palate displays supple tannin, a fine bead of acidity and very pure fruit intensity (black cherries, bilberry and boysenberry), although it clams shut toward the finish. Slightly more modern in style than its peers, this should still age with style. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting. Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2019)
The 2015 Gloria is even better than it was from barrel. Dark, voluptuous and intense, the 2015 hits all the right notes. Black cherry, plum, spice, gravel, tobacco and cedar give the wine much of its complexity and nuance. Gloria is one of the very finest values readers will come across in Bordeaux. Tasted two times. Drinking range: 2020 - 2040 Rating: 91 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2018)
Another property that has excelled in 2015. This is gloriously perfumed and appealing, with graphite and liquorice on the nose, followed by layers of crunchy black fruits, savoury tannins and well integrated (40% new) oak. Fresh, balanced and very long. Drinking range: 2022 - 2032 Rating: 95 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (May 2016)
This is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 7% Petit Verdot. In 2015 this is fresh, smoky, with dark red cherry and a juniper berry crunch to the fruit. It feels quite pure, with a little desiccated concentration, and a little vanilla cream. The palate shows a rather harmonious and supple texture, with piles of oak showing here, and a medium-bodied, fresh, rather understated character to the fruit. This is firm, the structure ripe but lightly drying, Savoury and lightly austere, with juicy fruit, slightly old-school in terms of style. Rating: 14.5-15.5/20 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2016)
Fine, fragrant nose and succulent fruit. It has a lovely texture, rounded tannins and fresh finish, with more finesse than in past years. Drinking range: 2020 - 2028 Rating: 90 Steven Spurrier (Apr 2016)
Exceptionally deep crimson. Deep and crisp and even on the nose. Very good concentrated glossy fruit. Polished and racy. A very neat, accomplished rendition that's almost drinkable already, so well handled are the tannins. Bravo! Showing much better than its stablemate Ch St Pierre when I tasted it, this could be GV. Drinking range: 2023 - 2035 Rating: 17 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Gloria is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot cropped at 51 hl/ha, matured in 40% new wood. It was picked between 21 September and finishing on 7 October with the Cabernet Sauvignon. It has a fragrant bouquet with dark cherries, cedar and touches of cigar box - classic Saint Julien in many ways, though it does not have the complexity of great recent vintages such as the 2010. The palate is well balanced, clean and pure with fine tannin. The acidity is nicely judged, not a million miles away from the 2015 Lagrange in terms of its refinement, but this has perhaps a touch more detail on the finish. Perhaps one of the more approachable Saint Julien wines this vintage, give this 4-5 years in bottle and then drink over the next 20 years. Drinking range: 2021 - 2040 Rating: 90-92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Gloria is intense and quite powerful, but also a bit rough around the edges. Iron, smoke, red stone fruit, pencil shavings and tobacco give the wine its rustic personality, an impression that is reinforced by the burly tannins. There is good intensity in the glass, even if some angular contours remain. Hints of inky crème de cassis and spice add the closing shades of Saint-Julien expression. Rating: 87-89 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
Rock-solid, with loads of bramble and bay leaf underscoring theripe blackberry and black currant fruit. There's lots of grip, but this is plush, staying focused through the toasty finish. Shows nice refinement. Rating: 90—93 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)
Pretty Gloria with plenty of tension and energy. Full body yet silky textured and extremely long. Exciting. Rating: 92-93 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2016)
Château 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.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.