Having a dinner with my friend and I have bought a bottle of 2005 A-F Gros Vosne-Romanee Aux Reas. Even though my friends are seasoned Burgundy drinkers, they still find different Gros on the market confusing. Jean Gros，Michel Gros，Gros Frere et Soeur，Anne Gros ，A-F Gros，Anne-Francois Gros, are you confused as my friends?
The famous Gros family is coming from the village of Vosne-Romanee. Instead of so many Gros we have today, there is only Louis Gros before around 1969. Louis Gros got four children, namely Jean, Francois, Gustave and Colette. And this was when we started to see different Gros on the market. Today, there are four Gros on the market. They are Michel Gros, A-F Gros, Gros Frere et Soeur and Anne Gros.
The first Gros since 1969 was Jean Gros. Wines produced by Jean Gros and labelled accordingly lasted until 1995. Since 1995, Jean Gros’ son, Michel Gros, started to look after this domaine until today. Comparatively speaking, Michel Gros has more manual intervention in his winemaking techniques than other Gros. For example, cultured yeast is used and machines are used to concentrate wines if their alcohol level are less than 13 per cent. Stylistically, Michel Gros is usually mid-way between Gros Frere et Soeur (which is the powerful and richness expression among the different Gros) and Anne Gros (which is the most feminine and elegant style).
Jean Gros also has a daughter, Anne-Francoise. She was married to Francois Parent in Pommard. This is the second Gros we can find on the market today, A-F Gros.
The third Gros were wines from Francois Gros and we can found wines labelled as Francois Gros Buy cipro online between 1969 to 1979. Between 1979 and 1988, Francois Gros sold most of his grapes to negoicants because of his illness. Between 1988 and 1995, Anne Gros and Francois Gros worked together and therefore wines were labelled as Anne & Francois Gros. In 1995, Anne Gros restructured the domaine and since then, wines are labelled as Anne Gros until today.
Maybe because Anne Gros is a female, her wines are the most feminine and elegant among all the Gros. Unlike Michel Gros, manual intervention in winemaking is kept to the minimum.
The last Gros is Gros Frere et Soeur which was started by Gustave and Colette. Although the name of Gros Frere et Soeur didn’t change since 1969 and is still in use today, Gros Frere et Soeur is looked after by Bernard Gros today since both Gustave and Colette have no child. Among all the Gros, Gros Frere et Soeur is the most powerful and richest.
Still confused? The following diagram may help.
Like most of the A-F Gros that I have drunk before, this 2005 A-F Gros Vosne-Romanee Aux Reas is a good quality Burgundy red which I like quite a lot. It has noses Buy Diflucan Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed of sweet and ripe red fruit aromas with quite dominant pungent spice aromas. These are added by blueberry, dried herbs and incense. A good if not outstanding complexity. In palate, it has surprisingly stronger sour flavour like hawthorn. A good village level Vosne-Romanee.
Purchased from Landmark’s Three-Sixty Supermarket HK$500