CHÂTEAU GRAND PUY LACOSTE
2015 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac
Creamy red and black fruit with more than a hint of vanilla, like a patisserie with dark jam. Supple and appetising, it has lovely balance and a touch of grip which keeps it going nicely on the finish. Rating: 92-93 L&S (Apr 2016)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2015 Grand-Puy-Lacoste has a conservative, complex yet reserved nose with tobacco- and graphite-tinged black fruit aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins. It is a little drier than some peers though this has held on to its smooth texture. This is just a little meatier on the finish than I recall. I am a massive fan of GPL and though I admire this, I would not include it amongst the greats of recent years. Alas, the bottle at Farr's 10-Year-On a couple of weeks later was corked. Tasted at the 2015 Ten-Year-On tasting at Bordeaux Index. Drinking range: 2025 - 2045 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2025)
Traces of butterscotch-smoked sweetness that shows the warm conditions of the year. Garnet and ruby in colour, there is an attractive sense of uplift, and the terroir impact is clearer than it was En Primeur, as always happens with the best estates after a few years in bottle. The classic Pauillac character is starting to assert itself, with crushed mint, cedar, slate, smoked earth and cardamon alongside blueberry, bilberry and cassis fruits. After half an hour in the glass it deepens in complexity, revealing the most gorgeous floral aromatics. 75% new oak. Drinking range: 2021 - 2040 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, www.janeanson.com (Oct 2021)
The 2015 Grand Puy Lacoste did not perform to the level I expected. That said, it has a wonderful bouquet of vibrant blackberry and raspberry fruit, rose petals and graphite, all very complex and engaging. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin. It still has some vanilla-y oak to be assimilated, but it displays a very smooth texture and fine precision toward the finish. A little more showy and modern in style than previous vintages. I would give this at least five years in bottle. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting. Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2019)
Swathed in spicy and toasty oak aromas, this has a wealth of superbly expressed red and dark berries, flowers and mint. The palate delivers a very assertive and energetic array of dark berries and spiced plums with a fresh, focused, vibrant finish. Superb wine. Drinking range: 2023 - Rating: 96 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2018)
The 2015 Grand Puy Lacoste is just as compelling from bottle as it was from barrel. Sensual, polished and refined, the 2015 is all class. Silky tannins, perfumed aromatics and beautifully delineated fruit are some of the signatures. The natural richness of the year comes through nicely, but without overpowering the wine's mid-weight sense of structure. This is a fabulous example of the year. Drinking range: 2022 - 2040 Rating: 95 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2018)
So suave and well mannered! Nicely balanced with lots of ripe fruit in a suitably bordelais corset but not a standout. Well mannered rather than amazing. A big charge of tannin here. Dry finish. Drink 2026-2040 Drinking range: 2026 - 2040 Rating: 17+ Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Nov 2017)
It’s time GPL were known as a great wine per se, rather than a great value for money claret (although it’s certainly that, too). This is the latest in a run of balanced, refined, “classic” Pauillacs with serious, scented oak complemented by cassis and tobacco notes, fine-grained tannins and bright acidity. Drinking range: 2022 - 2035 Rating: 95 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (May 2016)
The blend here is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. This is simply beautiful aromatically, with really pure essence of blackcurrant on gravel on the nose, laced with black cherry and damson, but with the freshness of the cooler vintage. There are darker notes too, slightly sooty, with a lovely bright lift to it. The palate is elegant, refined, with the same beauty of fruit as that seen on the nose. It has all that black cherry and damson character which talks of the ripeness of the vintage, but there is a very tense structure underneath, linear and refined, rather than the fat and creamy substance of the right bank. It has a sucking-on-a-cherry-stone texture, a mix of fruit and pebbles, but such lovely character overall. Very ripe, harmonious, with silky tannins. Top quality in this vintage. This is the one wine that bucks the terroir trend in 2015, being inland from the Gironde, but it has still turned out one of the top wines. Rating: 16.5-17.5/20 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2016)
74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc. Mid crimson. Relatively voluptuous for a 2015 Pauillac on the nose then racy and sucky-stony on the palate. Very Pauillac. Great energy. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 17 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2016)
Very good fragrance and florality – the typical slatey, stony Grand-Puy-Lacoste style shows even more precision and grip than usual, with wonderful middle fruit richness. Will make a really classic claret Drinking range: 2022 - 2040 Rating: 94 Steven Spurrier (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Grand-Puy-Lacoste, 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc, matured in 75% new oak and was picked between September 18 until October 4 (although the "real" picking commenced from September 21). Now, Grand-Puy-Lacoste is often quite "aloof" at this early juncture, but that is not the case with the 2015. This is more approachable aromatically, beautifully defined, thanks to that expressive Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The palate is medium-bodied with svelte tannin and finely tuned acidity (pH 3.68). Beguilingly harmonious in the mouth, it boasts a silky smooth texture with wonderful salinity on the aftertaste that is sustained in the mouth. As usual, Xavier Borie has produced a "classic" Pauillac, but one that is a little more appeasing to those that don't want to cellar for 20-30 years. You could describe the 2015 as being between 2009 and 2010...and that, folks, is not a bad place to be. Drinking range: 2028 - 2060 Rating: 94-96 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
A rich, super-finessed wine, the 2015 Grand-Puy-Lacoste brings together the ripeness of the vintage and classic elegance of Pauillac in stunning style. Today, the 2015 is gloriously ripe and intense, with fabulous follow-through and remarkable balance. Dark red cherry, pomegranate, exotic, spice and blood orange hit the flamboyant finish. This is one of the wines of the vintage. Don't miss it. Rating: 92-95 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
Pure, sleek and minerally today, with chalk and iron driving the core of red currant and damson plum fruit. The fruit is steadily emerging, and the length is there. Textbook Pauillac. Rating: 91—94 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)
This is very fine and elegant GPL with black currant and hints of walnuts, chocolate. Full body, sweet and pretty tannins. Persistent. So polished. Rating: 94-95 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2016)
Château Grand Puy Lacoste
Pauillac Cinquième Cru 1855.
If there's an estate that can rival Lynch Bages for the crown of most over-performing 5th Growth, it would be Grand-Puy-Lacoste.
The "Grand Puy" is the low gravelly hill on which the vineyards sit. In 1750 a portion were sold to Pierre Ducasse and became, obviously, Château Grand Puy Ducasse while the rest, after a couple of name changes owing to inheritance by daughters, became Château Grand Puy Lacoste.
The Borie family bought into Grand Puy Lacoste in 1978 and began quite a renaissance for the property.
Just a few kilometres from the town of Pauillac, the vineyards of Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste total roughly 36 hectares (90 acres) with Cabernet Sauvignon making up 75% of the total plantings and the rest belonging to Merlot (20%) and Cabernet Franc (5%). Typical of the region, the vineyard consists of a deep gravel top soil on a limestone base.
Production is about 12,000 cases of wine in an average year. Fermentation takes place in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks, and then the wines are placed into oak barrels (50% new) for 18 months of aging.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.