Les Fiefs de Lagrange
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Region: Saint-Julien, Bordeaux, France
Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot / Petit Verdot
Tasting: Blackcurrant / Red cherry / Cedar / Graphite / Tobacco leaf / Medium tannin / Medium bodied / Fresh finish
Pairing: Roast Lumina lamb rack / Sashi dry-aged côte de boeuf / Confit duck legs / Ceps on toast / Comté 24 month
Producer: Château Lagrange is a third growth in the 1855 classification, sitting on the highest ground in Saint-Julien across two gentle gravel slopes. Suntory bought it in 1983 from the Cendoya family and has spent the four decades since rebuilding it — replanting the vineyard, which now runs to 118 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot on gravel over sand and iron-rich clay, and rebuilding the cellars twice. Les Fiefs de Lagrange was created at the same time, and for the usual reason: a second wine lets the grand vin be selected harder. It comes off vines averaging thirty years old, about half of them Cabernet Sauvignon, and spends thirteen months in barrel with a fifth of them new — enough oak to frame the fruit without sitting on top of it.
2017 vintage: The late-April frost that cost other parts of Bordeaux dearly largely passed the Médoc by; the estates near the river were protected by the water and the gravel holding the day's heat. June was hot, July and August cool and dry, and September brought rain — a help after the drought, then a risk, so picking well was the whole job. The berries came in small and thick-skinned. This is a classic Saint-Julien in the fresher mould: cedar and blackcurrant, medium weight, tannins already soft. Drinking now and over the next few years rather than one to bury.
ABV: 13.5%
Vol: 75cl
Allergens: Contains sulphites
