Every time I visit Chateau Lascombes, there is a different story about amibitions for the wine. Finally there is one with which I am in complete sympathy. Château Lascombes is one of the largest classified growths in the Médoc, and either the largest or second-largest in Margaux (Giscours being the competitor for size). With more than 100 ha of vineyards, it is not surprising it should have a checkered history.

Very highly rated in the 1855 classification, it was only just behind Mouton Rothschild. A revolving series of proprietors presided over a continuous decline, until the château was on the verge of extinction when it was rescued by a syndicate headed by Alexis Lichine in 1951, but Lichine was never able to bring it to real second growth status. It was sold to Bass Charrington in 1971, and although nominally there was more investment, it remained a perennial under-achiever. In 2001 it was acquired by Colony Capital, an American pension fund group for €50 million; another €50 million was invested over the next decade, before it was sold for €200 million in 2011 to MACSF, a French pension fund group. Then in 2022 it was sold to Gaylon Lawrence, a Tennessee billionaire who owns several wineries in Napa Valley. It was certainly a surprise when Axel Heinz, winemaker at Ornellaia in Bolgheri since 2005, was appointed to run the château in 2023.

It was hard to come to grips with the true character of Lascombes. The change in style after Colony Capital took over was been as dramatic as any in Bordeaux. Tasted at the château a few years back, the 1995 and 2005 seemed like night and day. The 1995 was light without much concentration; the rich and powerful 2005 seemed like one of the “international” styles in the Médoc.

The mandate now is to find and restore the true character of Lascombes. “The new intention is to bring it to the level of a great second growth. At this level there is not much room for a style that is not to some extent linked to tradition. We need to find a style that represents a specific character of the estate,” says Axel Heinz. “We want Lascombes to be recognized as a great and unique expression of its terroir and Margaux. The first step is to make a Lascombes that represents Margaux. The next step is to define what makes Lascombes Lascombes.”

“Colony attempted to give Lascombes a new impulse in terms of quality. The stylistic choice was implemented very efficiently, following the style that was fashionable in the Robert Parker era. We want to get way from the style of high ripeness and high extraction and fleshy new oak. We want to be more refined and elegant.”

Lascombes was only 20 ha in 1855, with vineyards around the chateau and to its north. Today it has blocks in three areas, the extra areas being farther north and to the south. About 50 ha in the central core have the same character that was classified in 1855 (at that time Lascombes had parts of plots where it now owns all or more). The extra plots to the north are in Soussans and the new vineyards to the south came from the purchase

of Chateaux Martinens. The Grand Vin in future will come from the central core. “We want to define the key terroir for Lascombes and that should always prevail in the blend.” The proportions of Grand Vin and second wine will reverse, the aim being 40% of Grand Vin.

It’s become a perennial question in Bordeaux whether the second wine should be an alternative to the grand vin with its own identity, a baby version of it, or something completely different that is simple and approachable but lifted by the halo of the grand vin. What are the plans at Lascombes? “We want the second wine to have a defined personality. Approachability will be part of it, but first we want it to be a Margaux, silky and perfumed, in a style that allows early drinking, but not a simple wine, a serious one, with a different character from Lascombes. Even if it’s silky and charming, if it’s lacking its own character it won’t be enough.”

Axel blended the 2022 vintage and vinified the 2023 vintage. I tasted the second wine (Chevalier de Lascombes) and the Grand Vin. The wines taste like Margaux again!

On the lines of something completely different, ever since Axel arrived at Lascombes, given his record with the Masseto Merlot at Ornellaia, there have been rumors about the introduction of a varietal Merlot at Lascombes. “We have a fair amount of clay and limestone, it is arguably known to be great terroir for Merlot, but no one associates that with the Médoc,” Axel says. ”It is time for the Médoc to innovate. There should be room for something outside the norm of the Grand Vin and second wine. Maybe there should be some vineyard-designated plots, although it’s part of the DNA of the Médoc to make blended wine.” So watch this space.

Tasting of 2023 Samples

Chevalier de Lascombes
Fruity nose shows mix of red and black fruits. Fruit impressions continue to very finely textured palate. Tannins are quite silky. Although this is quite approachable, it still has the classic reserve of Bordeaux. Some bitterness on the finish, and a touch of heat. This needs time for flavor variety to develop more than to resolve the tannins. You feel a slight lack of generosity (not at all surprising for young Margaux, especially in this vintage).    90 Drink 2028-2038

Château Lascombes

More of a black fruit nose than Chevalier de Lascombes and greater presence on the palate. Immediately showing as finer and smoother, it feels that it is so elegant it would (counter-intuitively) be possible to start it even sooner than the second wine. It is just so smooth and silky it has to be Margaux. There’s more aromatic lift on the palate than Chevalier, and it seems almost drinkable, although there is some bitter chocolate on the finish. Time is needed to develop flavor variety.    92 Drink 2029-2042

I’ve been visiting Pontet-Canet for almost 20 years. The château continues to look quite unchanged, but behind the façade there is as much change here as at any chateau in Bordeaux. On my first visit, Pontet-Canet was virtually the only chateau in Bordeaux to be trying biodynamics . On my next visit they had a horse to work the vineyards, pulling equipment that had been designed and constructed at Pontet-Canet. This year they have a new cuverie.

Château Pontet Canet was a pioneer in organic and biodynamic viticulture and continues to plough ahead, both literally and metaphorically. Vineyards are ploughed by a team of ten Percheron horses, and new stables have been constructed for them (in the style of the existing buildings: you feel you are going back to the 18^th century when you visit.)

This has been a rotten year so far in Bordeaux (and for that matter, all over Northern France), not so much in terms of heat (although it has been relatively cool and not very sunny), but more for the constant mildew pressure. Mildew can spread like wildfire (to run the risk of Mixed Metaphor Disease), so it ‘s crucial to spray against it in a timely manner.

It’s an especially big issue for organic producers, who cannot use the steroid treatments of conventional viticulture. Copper is the treatment of choice, but the need to rely on a heavy metal has discouraged some producers from becoming organic. One chateau has suspended its plans to convert more of its vineyards to organic because they do not want to risk poisoning the soils; others may abandon organic viticulture this year.

Pontet Canet started biodynamics with 14 ha as an experiment in 2004, moved the whole estate to biodynamics in 2005, but then abandoned it in 2007 when they felt compelled to use conventional sprays against mildew to avoid losing the crop. It took another three years to get back to organic status. Régisseur Jean-Michel Comme, who was instrumental in committing to biodynamics, told me that if they had been biodynamic for longer at the time, the vineyards would have been better able to withstand the fungus. Mildew pressure may be just as great in 2024 as it was 2007, but the vineyards look healthy now.

Next to the stables is the tisanerie, a building dedicated to producing the biodynamic preparations. The chateau has designed all sorts of ingenious equipment for making the preparations. There’s a box full of cow horns that will be filled with manure, buried in the vineyard for 6 months, and then retrieved so the contents can be dissolved in water to make a spray that is applied to the vineyards. When a biodynamic vineyard is small, all this can be done by hand, but it’s a fair-sized operation to scale up for Pontet-Canet’s 80 ha, so they’ve built an apparatus for filling the cow horns automatically. Biodynamic preparations are made using ‘dynamized’ water, basically water that has been vigorously stirred, so there is a handsome series of waterfalls made out of stone that can be used to put the water through a vortex. The tisanerie has drawers full of dried preparations such as camomille or dandelion and has a wonderful smell like a very up-market tea room.

The winery itself goes beyond biodynamics in its emphasis on local products. A new cuverie has been constructed for the coming vintage. It has a large number of egg-shaped wooden fermentation vats and tulip-shaped concrete vats, as well as the old conical vats and underground concrete vats. The concrete vats are made with sand that comes from Pontet Canet and they are painted with clay from Pontet Canet. Local has a very defined meaning here. There is no electricity in the cuveries, everything is natural. Destemming is completely manual (no machines because no electricity). Sorting is on a table entirely by hand. Alfred Tesseron says no machine can replace the human eye.

Some years ago, commenting on the increase in quality and purity, Jean-Michel Comme said, “We changed our state of mind regarding the quality of the wine and viticulture, we could almost produce 100% of great wine, it is just a matter of parcels.” That prediction came true after 2016, when Pontet-Canet stopped producing its second wine: running counter to the trend to produce more second wine and less grand vin, now there is only the grand vin. The amount of the second wine had been declining, and the Tesserons decided it did not make sense to have a separate label for such a small amount. (Now any lots that do not make the grand vin are sold off.) The approach at Pontet-Canet is truly sui-generis.

The red cuvées from Clos Rougeard are iconic as very possibly the definitive representation of pure Cabernet Franc (see https://wordpress.com/post/winespecific.com/2492). There has been no change in that position since the Foucault brothers sold Clos Rougeard in 2017 to the Bouygues (who own Château Montrose in Bordeaux). Jacques-Antoine Toublanc, who had been a consultant to the Foucault brothers, took over winemaking to maintain continuity, and then handed over to Cyril Chirouze in 2022. In addition to the three red cuvées, there is a single cuvée of white, which comes from Brézé, possibly the best site for white wine production  in the Loire.

The wines of the Château de Brézé were so well known historically that they had their own description as Chenin de Brézé. An elevated site, sitting on a hill of tuffeau (local limestone), Brézé is dominated by the Château de Brézé, and when the AOC of Saumur-Champigny was established in 1957, its owner, Comte de Colbert, demanded that Brézé should have its own AOC because its terroir was so superior. Because of the poor quality of the wines—“an entire century of relatively terrible wines from one of the best sites in the Loire,” was one description—the demand was refused, and M. le Comte then declined to be included in Saumur-Champigny. As a result, the red wines as well as the whites are classified only as Saumur.

Today’s best white wine from Brézé is no doubt Clos Rougeard’s, with great purity of fruits offering a wonderfully savory impression of Chenin Blanc, with a steely minerality that’s reminiscent of Puligny Montrachet when it is young.. It is almost as difficult to obtain as the top red, Le Bourg, as both come from plots where only about 1 ha is in production (Le Bourg was recently increased by purchase of an adjacent plot, but which is not yet in production).

Brézé has had more change of style than the reds. Until 2007, Brézé used to get close to 100% new oak. In 2007/2008 the Foucaults started to decrease the new oak, and today it is about one third. The wine ages for 1 year before it is bottled (a year before the reds). “With climate change, it is important to keep the fresh style of Brézé,” Cyril says. 

Jacques-Antoine felt that Brézé had become too Burgundian in style and should return more to its roots in the Loire. “In red winemaking, we are following exactly the Foucault brothers, but for the whites the wine could be a little lactic. The brothers often weren’t ready to pick at the right time, and they used to pick late. Nady always said you should find everything from citrus to over-ripe in the Brézé. Some years it was too heavy for me. I’m not happy to make Burgundy, I want to get the typicity of Chenin, I want to get freshness,” Jacques-Antoine said. 

As we started a tasting of 2019-2017 when I visited two years ago, Jacques-Antoine said ruefully, “Our tasting now is a bit like infanticide. At home, I open the wine a day ahead and put it in a decanter.” He added that because of an oversight, on one occasion  a Brézé white was left open in the fridge for 3 weeks and was then even better. “It holds for 6 weeks, it goes off a little after 7 – but it’s not very practical for tasting.”

“The 2019 is typically what I would like to do every year, but it’s difficult. This is the new style, I would say,”  Jacques-Antoine said as we tasted it. The 2019 Brézé showcases the acidic character of Chenin, with a sense of tension that is exceptional, but it’s difficult to achieve every year. By contrast, the 2018, from a much warmer year, is a sort of halfway house between the new fresher style and older, more Burgundian style.

Cyril feels that Brézé reflects the era. “With regards to the style of Brézé, I don’t think it is a stylistic choice. They used to wait to have a ripe style in a period when ripeness was difficult to get. It’s a natural evolution in terms of adapting to climate change to try to get something fresh. Any change is not due to the ownership, it is an adaptation to changing climatic conditions.”

The style of Brézé reflects conditions of the vintage. In the last years of the Foucault brothers, the 2015 showed Burgundian generosity from a warmer vintage (you might argue whether it was more like Puligny or more like Meursault, but that would be irrelevant because basically Brézé is Brézé); then the cooler vintage of 2016 produced a leaner, more savory style that is absolutely definitive of Chenin Blanc in the Loire. 2017 varies from making a linear impression if the wine is very cool, to a a broader impression if it is a little warmer. Now we have to wait and see how the vintages post-Foucault will evolve.

Tasting Notes of Brézé (from tastings at Clos Rougeard and elsewhere since 2022)

2023
(Barrel sample) Fresh Chenin nose offers some savory impressions. Acidity is quite crisp on the palate. There are some slight impressions of oak. The harvest was ‘classical’ (ie.,in med-September, not early) and this certainly feels like a cooler clinate, fresher vintage. “I think we are going back to a fresher style of Brezé if you compare it with 2022, 2020, or 2018,” Cyril says. There is a saline tang at the end, in fact more of a saline impression than I remember on any previous vintage of Brezé.   90 Drink 2028-2036

2019

Savory nose of Chenin followed by mineral notes. The wine is quite tight at present, and this is definitely a fresher style than we have seen in the past. Faintly nutty at the end. Overall the style has more tension than it used to. This is a very definite style of Chenin.    92 Drink -2032.

2018

Softer impression to nose than 2019 but overlaid with sense of minerality following to the palate. This vintage is a halfway house between the styles (very flavorful and full-bodied, and the new style (fresher with more sense of tension). There’s an underlying richness, and you can just see the new oak. A saline catch at the end accompanies sme sweet herbal impresisons, and the finish is moving in a savory direction. It shows a perfect balance between fruity and savory 93  Drink 2026-2036.

2017

Nose is relatively restrained. Palate balances between fruity and savory with a lively sense of acidity, and shows the general tightness of the vintage. At the moment this is showing a tendency towards the sourness Chenin Blanc can express in leaner years, and it seems the least successful of trio from 2019 to 2017. A faint overlay of minerality is less obvious than in 2019.    90 Drink -2032.

2016

Relatively tight for Breze. In this cooler vintage you can see the savory acidity of Chenin. Smoky herbal impressions develop on the finish with a honeyed sense of viscosity in the background and a faint impression of curry. This cooler vintage is more Loire-like, flanked by the more Burgundian vintages of 2015 and 2017. The first signs of development show in a fugitive whiff of tertiary notes on the nose, although the palate stays fresh. 92  Drink –2032

2015

Medium golden color suggsts some age. A strong whiff of aromatics as the bottle was opened. Now at its peak with the faintest notes of oxidation really adding complexity. Deep palate shows perfect balance, This vintage strikes me as more like great old white Bordeaux than Burgundy wih something resembling the waxiness of Sémillon, and subtle, savory notes almost reminiscent of the garrigue. Acidity is balanced, a pointer to Chenin Blanc in a blind tasting would be a developing albeit slight sense of nuttinesss. Good weight to the body but a really subtle impression on the palate, and hard to disentangle the various influences—savory versus fruity, nutty versus acidic. A great success for a vintage that might easily have become too rich in other hands. It is totally delicious. 94 Drink –2026.

2014

Age shows in some nutty notes and a faint cereal quality, also a little more indicative of Chenin Blanc than usual. Palate shows nuttiness from age adding to the usual minerality. Acidity comes out a bit more in the glass but is hidden by a sheen of viscosity. Very good, and excellent for the year, obviously not a top vintage, but the character of Bréze comes through. 90 Drink now.

2011

Color deepening, nose attractively herbal, giving savory impession, then quite mienral on palate, which is lean and linear with a touch of salinity. It is at its peak and completely delicious. Long saline aftertaste even has hints of caramel and honey. Very complex and a fantastic result for an indifferent vintage.  93 Drink –2025.

The first time I visited Clos Rougeard, the Foucault brothers were making the wine in the cellars under their house at Chacé. I had sent an email, and then another email, and then a fax, saying I would like visit, without any response, until one day the phone went and it was Nady Foucault at the other end, laughing so hard it was difficult to understand him, but saying “So you want to visit us…” We arrived a couple of weeks later to find the house shut and no one in sight except a neighbor sitting on this step on the other side of the street. He observed us with a malicious eye, and then volunteered, “They have all left to go to the vineyard.” We were a bit early, and then at the appointed time, they duly came back.

Clos Rougeard is by far the most famous name in the entire Loire Valley for red wine. Its three cuvées are the definitive expression of Cabernet Franc. The white, Brézé, is probably the best Chenin Blanc in the Loire. Brothers Nady and Charly Foucault ran it together since 1969, until Charly died in 2015. As the result of Charly’s death, the estate was sold in early 2017 to the Bouygues brothers (of the industrial Bouygues Group, who own Château Montrose in St. Estèphe). Jacques-Antoine Toublanc, who was a consultant to the brothers, came as winemaker to maintain continuity.

When I visited Clos Rougeard two years ago, Jacques-Antoine was working out of a trailer, and a splendid new building was still under construction. The building has now been completed, and Cyril Chirouze, who came from Moulin-à-Vent to take over later in 2022, is making the iconic wine.

The Foucault brothers bought the site in 2010, because the cellars under their house were too cramped. It had been used for large-scale production of sparkling wine, and they tried to adapt it for Clos Rougeard. After the Bouygues brothers, who after all are in construction, bought Clos Rougeard in 2017, they started to construct a completely new winery at the site. It was first used to produce the vintage in 2020.

With the appearance of a Greek temple, the new winery is very large, and makes you wonder if there might be plans to expand Clos Rougeard. (When the Bouygues bought Clos Rougeard it had 12 ha, now it has 15 ha.)  The new plots include an extra hectare in Les Poyeux and an extra hectare in Le Bourg, but the grapes won’t be included in Clos Rougeard until the conversion to organic viticulture has been completed. ( Production has varied quite a bit lately, with 40,000 bottles in 2016, increasing to 60,000 bottles in 2018.) The first level underground has 17 tulip-shaped concrete vats—well, actually to my mind, they look like decapitated eggs. Each can ferment from 45 hl up, so each one can be used for a hectare. (Before these tanks were installed there was no temperature control.) There are 14 tanks for red and 3 tanks for white. There is neither pump over nor punch down. An elevator is used to take up to 50% of the juice up so it can be sprayed over the cap. Another level down are the original old cellars, extending over 1 km.

The domain wine (known as Le Clos but not labeled as such) is a blend from 15 parcels, spread over four villages, extending over a  distance of 6 km. Les Poyeux and Le Bourg are the cuvées from single vineyards. Le Bourg is more concentrated, but has limestone soil that keeps the roots moist so the wine always has freshness. With sandy soils, Poyeux is more elegant. “If you look at the Rougeard history, Bourg is very young. The first vintage was 1988. It was an experiment, it was a successful one, obviously. Real Rougeard lovers know Poyeux as the more historic cuvée,” Cyril says. “Because of the nature of the soil you will find that Les Poyeux is more impacted by the vintage than Le Bourg. We have less acidity than in Bourg and this is connected with the reaction of the place to drought. We are more scared about climate change for Poyeux than for Bourg.”

All the cuvées offer an unmistakable impression of pure Cabernet Franc. The domain wine is elegant and pure, Les Poyeux is the crystalline essence of Cabernet Franc, and Le Bourg is tighter with higher acidity and tannins, and needs more time. Cyril is really concerned to maintain the elegance of Clos Rougeard. On this visit, we tasted 2022 and 2023 from barriques. As we taste Poyeux, Cyril says, “2023 was not the most powerful vintage, we could have used more extraction, but we thought it was risky, we would have extracted some green stuff if we had done more pumping over. It’s a contrast with the massive ripeness of 2022.” Clos ages only in used barrels (which come from Poyeux or Bourg). Poyeux ages for two years in 1-2-year barriques.  Le Bourg ages in 80% new barriques (sometimes, as in 2022, in 90% new), with a minority of 1-year barriques.

“You are now comparing things that are not comparable,” Cyril says, as we move from tasting a barrel sample of 2023 Bourg to a sample of the 2022 vintage. “2022 could have been too ripe, 2023 could have been under ripe. But Bourg soil is like a sponge with its limestone soil. Both 2022 and 2023 will have good capacity for aging but for different reasons, 2023 for acidity, 2022 for its shoulders.” (And tasting the just-released 2018 from the first of a trio of hot vintages, you can see that Bourg really has a remarkable capacity to maintain freshness.)

The remarkable feature of Poyeux is the way that terrific sense of absolute black fruit purity comes through every vintage, whether it’s cooler  or warmer, more powerful or more elegant, that core of purity is always there. Most vintages require at least a decade for the flavor profile to broaden out, but the wine is always silky and fresh.

Tomorrow: the white at Clos Rougeard (https://wordpress.com/post/winespecific.com/2492).

Tastings of Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny

Les Poyeux 2023 
(Barrel sample) Fresh nose conveys impression of smooth, crystalline black fruits, with a mix of red and black inclined to cherries. “It is a gentle, elegant wine which is the classical style,” Cyril says. Great sense of fruit purity, hints of oak in the background; the wine is so approachable you feel you could already start to enjoy it. It will become increasingly silky as it ages.    90 Drink 2030-2040

Le Bourg 2023 
(Barrel sample, 1-year barrique) Color is significantly darker than Poyeux. More generous fruits on the palate, more black than red. Also in elegant style, but with more presence on the palate. Very fine tannic structure, with oak showing only as touch of bitterness on finish (which should resolve with time). Very fine fruits are balanced by freshness of the vintage.    92 Drink 2028-2040

Les Poyeux 2022 
(Barrel sample) Earthy nose comes close to animal overtones, a contrast with the ultra-pure sense of black fruits in 2023. The palate has that smoothness of the black fruits of ripe Cabernet Franc, with a coating of tobacco and chocolate, bringing granularity to the palate. That typical sense of purity emerges from the texture as the wine opens in the glass.    93 Drink 2032-205

Le Bourg 2022 
(Barrel sample; new barrique) Much more powerful nose than 2023 vintage. Palate is quite oaky with earthy overtones. You have to look through bitterness from the oak (and tannic structure) on the finish to see the rich fruits underneath. Palate has black fruits with restrained sense of power; indeed, behind that stern first appearance there is a great density of fruit, supported b the underlying freshness. The structure will make this a long lived vintage.    94 Drink 2032-2044

Le Clos 2018 
Smooth, not ready yet, tannins as always are very fine but there is some bitterness on the finish. But the finesse and sense of purity come right through. Some faint notes of roasted meat, almost animal, show on finish; freshness comes out at the end.    92 Drink 2028-2042

Les Poyeux 2018 
More direct sense of black fruit purity than Clos, with typical impression of crystalline structure. The faint animal notes that were visible before release have now disappeared to leave a really pure, clean expression of black fruits on the palate, reinforced by the linearity of the finish. This is very much an expression of absolutely ripe Cabernet Franc. It needs time for the fruit flavor profile to broaden out, probably about a decade.    93 Drink 2028-2040

Le Bourg 2018 
Nose blends black fruits with earthiness and some faint impressions of roasted meats. The main impression is just how complete it is. Black fruits are balanced by lovely freshness, already more varied in flavor and is more savory than Clos or Poyeux. Bourg really has a remarkable capacity to maintain freshness. The flavor variety has really come out in the past two years.    95 Drink 2030-2050