Ch. Gloria
Grand Vin
Saint-Julien
2009

The producer

What is an unclassified chateau made up of parcels of Classified Growths? – surely the most democratic of Saint-Juliens!  In 1942, Henri Martin, a cooper born in the region, began acquiring plots of vineyards from classed growth properties, including Talbot, Gruaud-Larose and Leoville-Barton. The same year he took over the Gloria property and by the mid 1960s he had 50 ha spread from north to south in the St-Julien appellation. In 1991 he passed away and today Gloria is run by son-in-law Jean-Louis Triaud.

Gloria is usually a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc. It matures in a combination of large oak foudres and 50% new small oak barrels, and is one of the great bargains, yet high-quality, Bordeaux, - certainly worthy of inclusion among the Classified Growths.

This is very good Bordeaux at an agreeable price.

The wine

Gloria is usually a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, with the remainder Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel and is followed by malolactic fermentation and ageing in 30% new oak barrels for around 12 months. Gloria is one of the great bargains, yet high-quality, Bordeaux and certainly worthy of inclusion among the Classified Growths.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.