1998 Lagrange

The modern era for this St. Julien third growth began in 1983, when the Japanese giant Suntory purchased this large estate at the southern end of the appellation directly to the west of Gruaud-Larose. In the middle of the 19th century, Lagrange had been the largest estate in the Médoc, with 300 hectares of land, 100 of which were under vine, in a single block surrounding the château. But due to financial difficulties through much of the 20th century, the estate had dwindled to 160 hectares by the time it was sold to Suntory, with only 56 hectares producing grapes.x000D x000D The property was in a sorry state when Suntory took over: its vines were in poor condition and its buildings and château had not been renovated following a fire in 1970. The winemaking facility was also in disrepair and full of old barrels. Michel Delon, the late owner of Château Léoville-Las Cases, was brought in by the new owners to consult (Delon remained involved here for ten years), and he quickly hired Michel Ducasse, who had been a pupil of Professor Emile Peynaud, to direct the property. Ducasse has guided the château ever since, having overseen the investment by the new owners of $40 million, or nearly four times the price Suntory paid for Lagrange in the first place.x000D x000D The total surface under vine is now 113 hectares, still in one contiguous parcel and still the largest classified growth of Bordeaux. Virtually all of the additional plantings were carried out between 1985 and 1988 (the petit verdot was the last to be planted, in 1988). The vines planted in the '80s are just now reaching an interesting age, says Ducasse, who believes that the best lies ahead for this property. Today, the estate's vineyards comprise 66% cabernet sauvignon, 27% merlot and 7% petit verdot, although until the late '90s the grand vin usually included even more merlot. Clearly, an increasing percentage of the estate's maturing cabernet vines is now going into the grand vin. Château Lagrange now features more petit verdot in its blend than virtually any other classified growth of the Médoc, as well as a higher percentage of merlot than other St. Julien châteaux. It was Ducasse who championed the planting of petit verdot, as he was convinced it would "fill in the holes of the cabernet" and give more backbone to the wine.x000D x000D A second wine, Les Fiefs de Lagrange, was introduced in 1985, and through the years most of the estate's younger vines have gone into this label. In the new winery, there are 56 temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, which allow the team to vinify smaller lots according to variety, age of vines, date of harvesting, etc. Ducasse told me that when he arrived "it took us five years to learn our numerous parcels." Ducasse credits much of the improvement in Château Lagrange since the mid-'80s to being able to take a much more precise approach to harvesting and vinification, with the large number of smaller parcels picked at ideal ripeness and given the special treatment they need. Lagrange follows a traditional Bordeaux vinification, with 15 to 20 days of skin contact and a fermentation temperature normally around 28oC. The wine is aged for 16 to 20 months, with the percentage of new oak at least 50%.x000D x000D I tasted the following series of wines with Ducasse in New York City on a frigid day in January. Ducasse's first wine, incidentally, was the difficult vintage of 1984, when extensive coulure in the estate's merlot vines forced Lagrange to make a very cabernet sauvignon-dominated wine.x000D x000D

"A great combination of balance and power; strong but harmonious," is how director Marcel Ducasse describes this estate 2000, a wine that features an unusually high 76% cabernet sauvignon component. The wine was easy to vinify, Ducasse added, and appears to be more elegant and more profound than the juicier '96. For the first time since 1989 the petit verdot was left out of the blend, as Ducasse felt it was "too tannic, too powerful and rustic." As in 1999, the overall crop level for the estate was the maximum permitted 58 hectoliters per hectare, but less for the best vines that normally go into the grand vin

The period of heat and drought in August and early September gave the vintage strong early potential, said director Marcel Ducasse, but the fruit was slowly diluted over time with the stubborn September rains. As a result, says Ducasse, the '99s will be facile, agreeable wines of moderate density and concentration, with "less energy for the future" than the '98s. Lagrange's petit verdot was rich, ripe and solid, added Ducasse, and thus all of it will be used in the grand vin. The '99 features the lowest percentage of merlot (25%) since 1984 (and the '98 is the second lowest at 28%), but that's less a comment on the quality of the merlot here than on the fact that the young cabernet vines are now maturing.

Here the '98 includes less merlot than in recent years, as director Marcel Ducasse felt it lacked energy and density. The yield for the domain was 58 hectoliters per hectare, and just 36% of the crop went into the grand vin. Ducasse describes the wine as having average to high acidity--and more than the '96. It rather like a super-'88, he says, with a structure similar to the earlier year but greater ripeness. Still, it's a particularly tough time to taste the new wine, Ducasse notes; the only influence of the oak at this early stage is to dry the wine.