Château Lascombes, 2ème Cru Classé, Margaux, 2023
This is a Margaux chateau we haven't much cared for in recent times. The wines often tend to be soupy and over-worked. Axel Heinz, the long-time winemaker at Ornellaia and Masseto has just become the head winemaker here, following the sale to Lawrence Wine Estates, so it's a chateau to keep your eye on. The 2023 is Axel's first full vintage in charge and it was certainly the toast of the UGC Margaux tasting. Dialled back, quite reserved for Lascombes with a nice fluid core of fruit and well judged tannins. Not competing with the best wines in the appellation yet, but a very nice effort, which will give lots of drinking pleasure.
critic reviews
The 2023 Lascombes is deep garnet-purple in color. Scents of freshly crushed blackberries, cassis, and black raspberries leap from the glass, leading to touches of menthol, dark chocolate, licorice, and violets in the background. The medium-bodied palate delivers impressive intensity, with vibrant black and red berry layers and a fine-grained texture lifted by a racy backbone, finishing long and minerally. This represents a real change in style to a classic beauty! The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot.
All eyes on this estate for its first full vintage with Axel Heinz. It's clear that the build and construction is more serious than in the past, but most impressive is the juicy pleasure to be found in the layers of inky, nuanced, textured fruits, with sculpted tannins and well-judged grilled cedar oak. Inky, savoury, black fruits, savoury and lifted. Tasted twice, thoroughly enjoyable both times.
Under ex-Ornellaia winemaker Axel Heinz, the 2023 Lascombes has a fragrant and floral bouquet with refined aromatics and lively black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a creamy texture and fine acidity, quite poised with a subtle saline note toward the finish. It possesses better structure than previous vintages—this shows a new direction for the estate, with greater selection in the vineyard.
A wine that begins a new era for this estate, the 2023 Lascombes (which I examined from separate components before tasting the prospective blend) offers up aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with hints of crushed mint, violets and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and velvety, with good depth and purity, it's a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. This estate, which was formerly one of the Medoc's poster children for over-ripeness and over-extraction, is assuredly coming in from the cold.