2018 Château Lagrange
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Tasting notes
Black chocolate and intense blackberry and bilberry fruits, clove and black pepper spice, touches of cigar box, sage, bay leaf and pencil lead. The berries in 2018 were the smallest ever, from the northeast wind that arrived in September and took 1hl/h of yield out every day - which together with the high alcohols meant that extraction had to be carefully controlled in the cellar. Successful and enjoyable. 3.42ph, 54% first wine, 50% new oak. Eric Boissenot consultant.
Critic scores
Average Score
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Tom Parker MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Tasted blind. Correct and neat. Ripe enough with quite a tannic charge. Ticks the boxes. (JR)
I am increasingly impressed with the work that Lagrange has been doing in recent years, and this is one of their standout vintages. Everything feels full of life and forward momentum, plenty of cassis, damson and bilberry fruits, finessed tannins, slight austerity with the tobacco leaf and rose stems, but still but so much life ahead.
The 2018 Lagrange appears to have gained a little more opulence since I tasted it in barrel. Quite precocious for the vintage, it presents lush black fruit with hints of menthol, a bouquet you might assume comes from a warmer growing season, though it is still well defined and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fleshy and ripe, demonstrating beautiful balance and poise toward the finish. I suggested that it might drink sooner than its peers, and this affirms that to be the case. One of the more approachable Saint-Julien wines, yet it is endowed with the substance to last.