Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste

A 5ème Cru Classé of 1855 with a long-standing reputation for over-delivering on its rank. Its name pairs 'Puy' (the local term for the gravel rises of the Médoc) with the Lacoste family, who owned it through the 18th and 19th centuries and built the château around the time of the 1855 classification. Grand-Puy-Lacoste has had only three owning families: the Lacostes, the Dupins (from 1932, the bon-vivant Raymond Dupin), and the Borie family, to whom it passed in 1978 under Jean-Eugène Borie. His son François-Xavier Borie, who began with the 1979 vintage and took full ownership in 2003, has renovated the estate and cemented its classic, age-worthy style.

About 55 ha in essentially one large block on a Pauillac gravel croupe rising to ~20 m off the D1, with neighbours Pontet-Canet to the south and Lynch-Bages to the west. Planted roughly 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc (the Franc a later addition) at 10,000 vines/ha; average vine age ~38 years, with old vines back to 1947, on gravel and pebbles over limestone. Vinification is in 90 temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats (12–180 hl) with malolactic in tank; the traditionally styled grand vin is aged 16–18 months in about 70–75% new French oak. The second wine, Lacoste-Borie, debuted with the 1982 vintage. Vat rooms and cellars were renovated in 2004 and again in 2016. The Bories are a major Médoc family, historically also tied to Ducru-Beaucaillou, Haut-Batailley, and Caronne Ste-Gemme.