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Wine Description
The Story
The name of Grand-Puy-Lacoste is one of the vineyards selected in 1855 by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, to figure in its famous classification.
This classification only recognized the well established reputation of the properties it listed, and because the first half century before listing were not the best times at Grand-Puy-Lacoste, it “failed” to make a noteworthy impression in terms of prices and reputation, achieving only a lowly 5th Growth classification. The reputation of Grand-Puy-Lacoste has improved a lot since then and today the quality and prices of Grand-Puy-Lacoste can often easily compare with 2nd Growth.
The origin of the property is very old, since its first mention in official documents appears at the beginning of the 15th century. The estate extends over 225 acres in a single unit to the south of Pauillac, on a rise, which is the origin of its name "Grand-Puy". Monsieur Lacoste gave his name to the Château when he bought the property and kept it until the epidemic of phylloxera at the end of the 19th century.
However Grand-Puy-Lacoste´s was built by Monsieur Raymond Dupin, a legendary figure in the Medoc wine world and president of the “Union of Médoc Classified Growths”, who bought Gran-Puy-Lacoste in 1932 and was the proprietor until 1978. He sold half of the estate’s shares to Jean-Eugène Borie, who took over the responsibility for the wine production.
Nowadays, François-Xavier Borie manages Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste. He renewed the cellars of the château just before producing the great vintage of 1982.
There are currently around 110 acres of vine producing approximately15.000 cases on a soil planted with 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. The grapes are picked always by hand and the wines are matured in oak barrels for 14 to 18 months.
Vintage 2020
In Bordeaux, the heat resulted in early flowering. Also, this led to an early harvest after a very hot summer. As a starting point, there is great maturity in the grapes, and one can expect a more opulent vintage than in the last few years.
The summer this year has been the warmest since 1959, yet the rain has fallen at the right times during the growing season. The harvest took place two weeks before the norm and will yield grapes with high potential alcohol and the lowest acidity since the 2003 vintage. As they say in Bordeaux: "It has been a good and extreme growing season which hopefully also produces great wines".
