Today Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director, David Allen MW, tastes one of the wines of the moment from the 2023 Bordeaux en-primeur tastings, and the first vintage for new CEO Axel Heinz. A chance to see how much has changed at Chateau Lascombes with their 2023 wine.
Château Lascombes is a well-regarded and critically well-received wine estate in the Margaux appellation of Bordeaux’s Haut-Médoc. The estate produces a classic Margaux known for its deep color, rich texture, ripe fruit and elegant tannic structure. The estate was ranked a second growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
The estate dates back to the 17th Century and its name comes from the original owner, the Chevalier de Lascombes. While some vestiges of the original building remain, much of the current château dates back to the 19th Century.
The property has seen numerous owners over the years, including prominent Bordeaux figure and wine writer Alexis Lichine. The estate was owned for 11 years by the French health insurance group MACSF (Mutuelle d’Assurance du Corps de Santé Français) who sold it in 2023 to US group Lawrence Wine Estates. The new owners have appointed Axel Heinz, former CEO of Super-Tuscan estate Ornellia to run Château Lascombes. The release of their 2023 wine has been awaited with some anticipation
The vineyard is situated in the northwest of the appellation, neighboring châteaux Labégorce, Ferrière and La Gurgue. The château building and winery are in northern Margaux town, just one kilometer (0.6 miles) west of Château Margaux. The estate vineyards cover 120 hectares (nearly 300 acres) in Margaux with a parcel of ten hectares (25 acres) in the Haut-Médoc appellation. It is one of the largest wine estates in the wider region. The vineyard has three distinct parts of roughly equal size; a gravelly mound on which Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are planted; a clay-gravel area of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon; and clay-limestone plots better suited to Merlot.
Unusually for Margaux, Merlot accounts for around 50 percent of plantings with Cabernet Sauvignon playing second fiddle along with a small amount of Petit Verdot. Despite this, the grand vin tends to feature around 55 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
The winery is built on four levels to allow the use of gravity flow systems. Wood and stainless steel vats of differing sizes allow the crop to be vinified plot by plot and variety by variety. The Château Lascombes grand vin is aged for 18 to 20 months, using a barrel rotation system to keep the lees in suspension, giving the wine more texture without allowing extra air contact. The estate has a long association with renowned consultant winemaker Michel Rolland.
Find out more about this wine, its pricing and availability by following this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/lascombes+margaux+medoc+bordeaux+france/2023
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hello there today I’m in the southern
medok chat Lagoon at the union de Cruise
omoma tasting for the
2023 Margo and Southern Mok and I just
wanted to share a couple of wies with
you one of them one of the wies that
stood out for me was shatow
lasom now shatow lasom is a fairly well
known State and I find it tends to make
fairly light elegant very classically
structured [ __ ] I think 2023 is a
vintage where Mongo’s done very well
there there are some beautiful Aromas
from C [ __ ] isn’t a an appolon that
typically relies on power it relies on
elegance and perfume and so it’s coming
to its own in 2023 now this is a wine
that’s 60% cabon with 37% of mow and
there’s a remaining 3% of ptiv in there
but actually to me this wine has a
lovely concentration it’s not heavy but
there’s nice intensity of quite Rich
fruit looking at it to begin with we’ve
got a a deep dark it’s almost opaque
black purple sort of color there a
lovely color intensity and some good
tears being shown to on the glass there
the Aromas and this is where the
intensity really shows itself to human
it’s almost a sort of compart of like
Plum perhaps black berry there’s a
slight sort of wild spicy note there and
considering this is I I I’ve been
looking more actually for ciss but you
know there’s an opulence and a richness
here it’s it’s ripe Rich Black
Plum so let’s
taste and it’s on the palette that the
black car Cassie section really sharp
Cassis notes come through because there
beautiful fresh and that’s helping to
drive those perfumed
Aromas it’s a very fine structure there
almost sort of licorish
concentration Center there at it a
slight bitterness that’s actually quite
mouthwatering and it doesn’t sound
pleasant but combined with ripe fruit
the two work very well together and
there’s a lovely concentration and
roundness of this cised Black Plum
fruit the wine I’m talking about
concentration the wine is only of mid
weight it’s not it’s not a heavy weight
Bruiser but the acidity is sort of just
lifting the finish and again I’m seeing
the Cassis maybe there’s a hint of
graphite sort of notes derived from the
the cedy oak but there’s not a sort of a
heavy structured CED finish it’s elegant
it’s ethereal it’s got that sort of
lifted ciss
note given the wi
acidity given it sort of really quite
lovely chewy tanic structure there’s you
know just the tiniest hint of spicy grip
there but you know there is some quite
good tanic concentration but it’s not a
stringent it’s it’s it’s Supple it’s
chewy and again I’m getting a sort of
mouthwatering note in the tanins the
wine has a divinely long finish it’s
elegant and the fruit is staying there
so coin classically as I’d expect from
last with with some Elegance but with I
think layered complexity and and
slightly greater concentration than I
normally see from from lasc so certainly
a wine worth considering from the 2023
votage and and many of the wines from
Maro are they they’re very attractive
wines I suspect they’ll be attractive to
drink early I suspect they will also age
particularly well because the structure
and the balance is is is good so thank
you very much for watching enjoyed the
tasting if you have do please press the
like button do if you’re enjoying these
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have your support any comments you have
leave those in the comments box below I
will leave a link to the page on wine
Searcher for 2023 lcom obviously there
won’t be offers available immediately
that this video is published but those
should become available and also there
you can see the critics notes as we get
a hold of those and you’ll be able to
find out more information there
certainly attributes on the profile
notes there so thank you very much for
watching and I do hope you’ll join us
again soon bye for now
2 Comments
Definitely an interesting one! Thanks so much.
Could we job swap?