Château Lagrange
Meeting with Matthieu Bordes, General Manager of Château Lagrange
Château Lagrange is a vineyard property located west of the Saint-Julien appellation in the commune of Saint-Julien-Beychevelle. Even though the castle itself was built in 1618, the origins of this Cru Classé of SaintJulien date back to the Middle Ages. Currently the property extends over 157 hectares (118 planted) on one property, on two parcels of Garonne Graves of the Quaternary (Graves Günziennes). The vineyard is planted with about 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot.
V.d.V.: What makes the typicality of your terroir? A block of 118 ha in one piece that combines several terroirs ranging from 80% bass to 10% coarse elements and a limestone clay subsoil.The largest altimetry at Saint julien 5m for the lowest plots which unfortunately froze this year and 23 m at the highest consisting of several meters of gravel. Note 23m is the highest point of the appellation and it does not please everyone but it is the truth! It is an older vineyard: 10 ha are less than or equal to 10 years old, 60 ha which are 32 years old and 50 ha which are between 40 and 65 years old… which also explains the good quality of the Fiefs de Lagrange.
Our geographical situation in the southwest of the appellation allows us to have between 1 and 3 degrees cooler than at the edge of the river this allows us to keep a lot of freshness in our wines (acidity, PH, aromatic…)
Our staff, for the most part, have been working on the same plots for thirty years, so it is important to have this continuation.
V.d.V.: What is the signature of the Lagrange wines? What makes it possible to recognize them in blind tasting? A very relevant question! We who generally taste blindly and benchmark (the school of humility of course but also truths!)
Our wines always reflect the terroir of Saint Julien and the image we have of these wines. Quite often Denis DUBOURDIEU would do tastings for the DUAD or the Faculty of oenology to illustrate the wines of this appellation.
First of all the color is always much less evolved than the majority of the wines of the appellation, the wines are cooler in a consistent vintage. They offer a nice acidity which can sometimes take one aback at first but which guarantees us a remarkable longevity both aromatically and visually. In the nose: black cherry fruit, licorice, menthol, pepper and sometimes jasmine floral notes, the oak is aggressive with melted vanilla, caramel, mocha. With aging there are notes of cedars, eucalyptus, full grain leather and licorice.
The mouth is never overpowered but well built, tasty, digestible and always balanced because we adapt the extraction according to the plots from which the grapes come. (Intra-plot)
I must say that since 2000 the wines are very precisely aromatic and have a great drinkability due to the freshness (PH between 3.45 and 3.65 all vintages combined)
This may seem presumptuous but to taste them regularly blindly and in Benchmark on the same vintage, over a dozen years there are no wine rivals, as incredible as it may seem.
V.d.V.: Where does the name of Château Lagrange come from?
Lagrange comes from the word Grangia which in old Gascon defined a community managed in polyculture including dwellings. This community, known as the Tenement of Pellecahus, was founded by the Templars but was long managed by the Order of Malta. For example, we found in Lagrange traces of an ancient hospital and a chapel.
V.d.V.: Describe your passion for wine in a few words. Perfectionism, excellence, humility and sharing.
V.d.V.: Do you have plans for Château Lagrange?
Yes, we are planning to build a cave.At present one of our vinification cellars is semi-buried. The idea is to move this cellar and dig deeper to create a cave to store our bottles. Normally work should start next year.
After all, we want to continue working on quality and fragmented work. In order to be able to optimize quality, work more precisely / close to our vineyard, we have doubled the number of tanks and reduced the size of the tanks