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Tasting notes
Deep rich ruby colour, brooding and a little closed on the nose, this is a great wine in both 2009 and 2010, which is not always the case, perhaps because the two vintages needed different skillsets. You can pick either vintage for Gloria though, and this one majors on crayon, campfire, violet flowers, grilled almonds, blackberry, damson and incense.
Critic scores
Average Score
Wine Spectator
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
While still young and reserved (especially immediately on opening), the 2010 Château Gloria is brilliant stuff that blossoms with air. Ripe black fruits, smoky tobacco, chocolate, graphite, and a certain level of minerality that actually reminds me of Ducru-Beaucaillou. With medium to full-bodied richness, a concentrated, structured, yet flawlessly balanced mouthfeel, and a great finish, it's a perfect example of the vintage. Drink bottles any time over the coming 2-3 decades.
Cocoa bean, bilberry, cassis, espresso, smoked earth, campfire, chunky tannins that put the emphasis on dark Petit Verdot spice. It's a St Julien wine that has hints of Pauillac, where you feel the shoulders, the structure and the chewy tannins but there is a generosity and again this sparkle of cheer underpinning it all that Gloria does so well. Plenty of time ahead. 40% new oak, harvest September 29 to October 16. 46hl/h yield, from a year that saw both quality and quantity. Remi di Constanzo technical director.
The 2010 Gloria has a very attractive and quite intense bouquet with a surfeit of blackberry and wild strawberry scents, cedar and light seaweed coming through with aeration. The palate is very well balanced with supple but firm tannins framing the pure blackberry and bilberry fruit, laced with black pepper and clove. Very complex, very focused and very precise on the finish, this is an outstanding 2010 Saint-Julien. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.
About the producer
The modest Ch. Gloria was only created in the 1940s, when Henri Martin – a cooper – purchased some vines. With parcels dotted in amongst the region’s Classed Growths, it produces impressive wines. Today it's managed by Vanessa and Jean Triaud (Henri Martin’s granddaughter and grandson-in-law).