documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
usepackage{tikz}
begin{document}
begin{tikzpicture}
  draw [thick] (0,0) grid (5,5);
  foreach y/text in {
    1/A,
    2/Two words,
    3/Something longer,
    4/The,
    5/begininning of a sentence%
  }{
    node at (0,y) [left] {text};
  }
  node at (-3.5,2.5) [rotate=90] {textbf{Some Label}};
end{tikzpicture}
end{document}