Château Lascombes 2023

Aromas of stone, black licorice, tar, blackberry and slightly burnt orange. Medium to full body with a solid core of tannins and tight but juicy fruit. More chiseled and tannic than in the past.

60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot D’invitantes notes chocolatées, que l’on connaît bien de Lascombes, apparaissent d’entrée. Elles sont accompagnées de parfums de baies noires mûres, de framboises et de menthe, donc un excellent ratio entre élevage, charme et fraîcheur. En bouche, Lascombes ne fait pas que renforcer, mais plébisciter le lien entre séduction et vivacité. C’est de bon augure ! Ainsi, l’harmonie est le fil rouge du palais avec une belle symbiose entre des tannins puissants, mais élégants et bien intégrés, et une acidité non seulement structurante, mais également salivante. 2028-2043

The vintage of 2023 marks a new chapter for Château Lascombes. In Axel’s first year at the helm, he introduced several changes: reducing the proportion of Merlot in the Grand Vin, shortening maceration times, lightening the intensity of maceration, and significantly decreasing the percentage of vineyard from the Soussan in the grand vin. The most notable change in the 2023 vintage, from my perspective, is its enhanced clarity of expression. Aromatically, the flavors of bayberry, cherry, and plum are soft and juicy, while the fragrances of peony and wild rose are delicately enchanting; the previously intense toasted aromas have all but disappeared. Axel and the consultant Julien disclosed to me that Château Lascombes implemented stricter fruit selection in 2023, with the Grand Vin representing only 40% of total production, which is a primary reason for the improvement in quality at Château Lascombes.

A wine that begins a new era for this estate, the 2023 Lascombes (which I examined from separate components before tasting the prospective blend) offers up aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with hints of crushed mint, violets and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and velvety, with good depth and purity, it's a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. This estate, which was formerly one of the Médoc's poster children for over-ripeness and over-extraction, is assuredly coming in from the cold. Axel Heinz has signed his arrival at Lascombes with a wholesale stylistic revolution at this estate, which always produced one of the chunkiest, most extracted wines of Margaux, and has crafted a grand vin of impressive sensuality and charm in the 2023 vintage. Lascombes, as Heinz explains it, was already very morcellated in 1855; so while it's true that the estate is much bigger today than it was in 1855, many of those acquisitions represented the purchase of adjacent parcels in terroirs where the estate was already present. Heinz and his team have defined Lascombes's core terroirs and studied their soils, and the phase of reflection is clearly just beginning. Gentler extraction at cooler temperatures, as well as shorter macerations for the riper lots of Merlot and Petit Verdot, were one obvious change to implement; so, too, has been a more nuanced approach to barrel choices and toasts—and vessels as well as foudres are being introduced. Working the lees has been stopped to enhance precision, and malolactic in tank is now the order to the day. The result is the best Lascombes the estate has produced for many years, and a wine that should inspire genuine optimism for this second growth's future.