Château Grand Puy Lacoste, 5ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2019
Xavier and Emeline Borie have made a glorious range of 2023s. The fragrant GPL 2023 emerges from the glass with suggestions of violet, iris, bergamot, pencil shavings and creme de mûre. Cool, composed fruit flows over the palate; juicy and textural, but so well pixilated and defined. There's a real sense of freshness and verve and focussed energy to the pure bramble fruit. As one would expect, the tannins are impeccably judged with lots of rock salt and blackcurrant detail. A supremely elegant and refined GPL. Bravo! 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot.
critic reviews
A blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot, the 2019 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is deep garnet-purple in color. It offers up fragrant notes of lilacs, licorice, and dark chocolate over a core of blackcurrant jelly and blackberry pie. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in elegance, with lovely freshness and fine-grained tannins, finishing long and perfumed.
The 2019 Grand-Puy-Lacoste has a well-defined bouquet with cedar and graphite infused black fruit, hints of pencil shavings, controlled and refined. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins, taut and fresh with a pixelated and mineral-driven finish, lingering long in the mouth. What a heavenly 2019 Pauillac. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
The 2019 Grand-Puy-Lacoste exhibits notions of minty cassis, plums, loamy soil, burning embers and cigar wrapper, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and velvety palate thats deep and concentrated, its generous core of lively fruit concealing an elegantly muscular chassis of ripe, powdery tannin. Consisting of fully 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, this is another true classic from the Borie family.
Inky and glass-staining damson colour, with enjoyable aromatics, slow building power that is tempered and softened by waves of violet and peony. Knitted down, muscular tannins build a wall around the black fruits. This is concentrated, signature Pauillac just as it was En Primeur, majoring on pencil lead, cloves, liquorice and cocoa bean. 41hl/h yield, 75% new oak.