Today David Allen MW rounds off his tasting of the 2024 Bordeau en-primeur wines with a half bottle sample he has brought back to New Zealand to taste. The wine is the very impressive Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classe, Chateau Lassegue.
Château Lassègue is an estate in the Bordeaux appellation of Saint-Émilion, owned by the California-based Jackson Family Wines. The estate was named a Grand Cru Classé in the 2022 classification of Saint-Émilion.
The château lies four kilometers (2.4 miles) southeast of Saint-Émilion town, on a gentle southwest-facing slope (known as the Côte de Saint-Émilion) overlooking the flatter land that runs down to the Dordogne river to the south.
The château has a history dating back to the 17th Century and was once a chaterhouse. Its modern history, however, dates to 2003 when it was purchased by California vintner Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke. They engaged Pierre and Nicolas Seillan, a father-son team with links to southwest France and California, to oversee the estate.
The estate spans 36 hectares (89 acres) with 24 hectares (60 acres) of vineyard. The vineyards face south and southwest, receiving ample sunlight for fruit to attain physiological ripeness. For this reason the château’s façade and wine label are adorned with sundials – both a historical quirk of the property and a symbolic link to the estate’s orientation.
The vineyards are composed of chalk, clay, and limestone soils and planted to 60 percent Merlot, 35 percent Cabernet Franc, and five percent Cabernet Sauvignon. Yields are limited as the vines range from 40 to 55 years old and final blend makeup of the wines generally reflect the proportions of varieties planted on the property.
The château’s flagship, Lassègue, is produced from vines planted primarily on limestone slopes. The Merlot-dominant blend spends 12 months aging in 60 percent new, French oak barriques made fron trees specifically selected by Pierre Seillan – in the cellar the barrels are not branded by cooper but by forest.
To find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/lassegue+st+emilion+grand+cru+bordeaux+france/2024
To learn more about the en-primeur process and to follow the campaign as it develops follow this link to the dedicated pages on the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/en-primeur
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1 Comment
So how to bring back a bottle in the airplane?