critic reviews
The 1999 Grand Puy-Lacoste offers attractive brambly red fruit with pencil shavings and touches of undergrowth. There is plenty of freshness here, more than in other Pauillacs that I have tasted at 20 years of age. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin and pretty red currant and raspberry notes tinged with orange peel and a hint of leather. It is not a powerful Grand-Puy-Lacoste, and never was, but the balance sees it through, and it will give another ten years of drinking pleasure. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the estate.
This deep ruby/purple-colored 1999 has some tannin to resolve, but it is an elegant, medium-bodied, delicious effort that will reward readers who have the patience to cellar it for several years. It is not a blockbuster in the style of the 2000 or 1996, but the 1999 offers charming roundness, sweet cassis fruit, excellent purity, and fine overall balance. It should last for 16+ years.