1999 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

Director Georges Pauli practices a rather robust vinification, doing a month-long maceration, and drawing out the fermentation to permit as much remontage as possible for better extraction of good tannins (Pauli describes this approach as "extraction through diffusion"). A good portion of the malolactic fermentation takes place in new barrels, and not just for the merlot. Pauli told me he loves the way the oxygenation that occurs during malolactic in barriques fixes the color of the wine.Gruaud-Larose2001Deep ruby color. Somewhat jammy aromas of roasted black cherry, boysenberry, chocolate, leather and earth; distinct evidence of surmaturite Then dense and lush but quite dry in the mouth, with primary, slightly grapey flavors of currant and blackberry and solid underlying minerality. Comes across as a bit hard-edged today, but I suspect this chewy wine should prove to possess enough density to support its somewhat austere, toothcoating tannins.87-90Gruaud-Larose2000$69-$110Saturated medium ruby. Deep aromas of black cherry, currant, coffee, dark chocolate, meat and leather; liqueur-like without coming across as roasted. Then hugely sweet and rich, with a distinctly velvety texture. Good vinosity gives the mid-palate a sappy character. Finishes very long, with a boatload of sweet, building tannins. Director Pauli hoped to bottle the 2000 in May without filtration. Analytically, both this vintage and the 2001 are atypically rich in polyphe125nols. But this is far more opulent.91-94Gruaud-Larose1999$34-$37Full medium ruby. Highly aromatic, expressive nose combines currant, espresso, saddle leather and roasted meat. Sweet, lush and smooth, but given definition by its vinosity. Not especially refined, but plummy and mouthfilling. Ripe tannins saturate the teeth and the sides of the mouth on the long finish.89Lagrange." The 2001 crop required strict selection due to the widely varying ripeness of fruit," noted director Marcel Ducasse. "But the crop level was lower than that of 2000, with the merlot particularly concentrated. The wine has personality and energy; it's not wimpy. 2001 is a serious vintage in a rather stern style; it's not for novices." The new wine includes 11% petit verdot (along with 62% cabernet sauvignon and 27% merlot), whereas no petit verdot went into the 2000, because in the earlier year this fruit was "too powerful, too rustic; it threw the wine off balance."

"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.