LACOSTE BORIE
2017 du Château Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc. Strained red fruit on the nose. There is juice on the palate, a little weight and richness but all kept in place by bright acidity. Another cracking wine from the GPL Stable. Rating: 89 L&S (Apr 2018)
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The 2017 Lacoste-Borie is a soft, easygoing wine to drink now and over the next few years. Sweet tobacco, mint, cedar and dried cherry give this mid-weight Pauillac lovely shades of complexity to match its mid-weight personality. Drinking range: 2019 - 2027 Rating: 89 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Mar 2020)
The 2017 Lacoste-Borie has abundant red berry fruits on the nose, a little rustic maybe and strangely reminiscent of a Burgundy (at least for the first couple of minutes.) The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, plenty of tobacco-infused red and black fruit with a classic cedar finish. Quintessential Lacoste-Borie in many ways. Drink over the next 10-12 years. Drinking range: 2021 - 2033 Rating: 89 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Feb 2020)
The 2017 Lacoste Borie was picked from 15 to 29 September, cropped at 49hl/ha. It has a clean, fresh and slightly earthy bouquet, what you might call “classic” in style, perhaps not quite as precise as the 2016 but then again, few 2017s are. The palate is medium-bodied with firm and strict tannin, a little raw at the moment with a small attenuation on the slightly rough-hewn finish. Not bad although I would like to see more finesse by the time of bottling. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Drinking range: 2019 - 2028 Rating: 88-90 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc on very deep coarse gravel. Deep crimson with soft purple rim. Has both dark Cabernet fruit and the sweetness of Merlot. Gentle and inviting. Fruit sweetness and freshness on the finish – you'd almost think of drinking this now. But there's tannin to support the fruit. And a light note of pepper. Fruity and lively. Not deep but lively and fresh. Juicy and yet persistent. Could be GV for the medium term. Drinking range: 2022 - 2028 Rating: 16 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)
This is bright, with extremely well-placed, juicy blue fruits with coffee touches, and a gorgeous sense of energy. It's a definite buy in this vintage, and should be great value. Technical director Christel Spinner has done a great job of delivering a focussed, finessed wine. I wouldn't wait too long to enjoy this, as it already has lots to enjoy. Harvested 15-29 September, yielding a fairly normal 49hl/ha, so we can safely say no frost here. Drinking range: 2022 - 2036 Rating: 92 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)
The second wine from Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste is also a solid effort. The 2017 Lacoste-Borie checks in as 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc (from slightly higher yields). It offers plenty of dark, earthy fruit, some minerality and tobacco, medium body, and a silky, nicely balanced style on the palate. It’s going to drink nicely in its youth. Rating: 84-86 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Apr 2018)
The second wine of Grand-Puy-Lacoste, this is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot and 9% Cabernet Franc. The picking dates were as for the grand vin. In the 2017 vintage it has fresh, pure, red cherry-stone nose, fragrant and cool rather than intense or concentrated. This is followed by a very pretty, elegantly formed palate, fresh and pure, with a lovely elegance to the composition, the wine possessing a finely crafted but gentle middle palate with finessed tannins which have a fresh and fine grain to them. It has purity and delicate fruit in abundance, with red cherry fruit, a touch of cranberry too, but with a soft, ripe, harmonious texture, and nice balance. A wine of some charm, this is not one for the cellar, and it will drink well young, over the next five or so years. Rating: 89-91 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)
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.