Château Lascombes

The estate

Lascombes takes its name from Antoine, Chevalier de Lascombes, who held it in the 17th century, and the first vines were planted in 1681. Before 1855 its standing moved with every edition. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, made it a third growth that year, at 10 to 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); André Jullien made it a second in 1832, at 50 to 70; Franck still called it a third in 1845 and a second in 1853, and the brokers kept it there. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, noted in 1868 that it had once been joined to Durfort, and quoted the review Le Producteur of 1838 on its old vines, very good varieties and precious ground, which gave wines “of a quality so superior that they can rival Château Margaux.”

Since 1952 it has changed hands 3 times. Alexis Lichine, the merchant and writer who also gave his name to Prieuré-Lichine, led a group of investors that bought it in 1952. The French medical insurer MACSF bought it in 2011 and in 2022 sold it to Lawrence Wine Estates, the Napa group of Gaylon Lawrence, with Carlton McCoy. Axel Heinz arrived from Ornellaia and Masseto in time for the 2023 harvest, as winemaker and chief executive, with a brief to make a classic Margaux, charming and pleasurable, and to draw the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) back onto the historic core of the vineyard.

The estate runs to 130 hectares, planted 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, on clay and limestone, clay and gravel, and gravel. Chevalier de Lascombes, the second wine, comes from the outlying parcels, and Le Haut-Médoc de Lascombes is the third. The new owners added La Côte, first made in 2022: a pure Merlot from a parcel of 5 hectares where a vein of blue clay runs through the limestone.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

Lawrence Wine Estates, the Lawrence family, with Carlton McCoy, since 2022

Direction

Axel Heinz, winemaker and chief executive, from the 2023 harvest

Vineyard

130 hectares

Ground

Clay and limestone, clay and gravel, gravel

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 48%, Merlot 48%, Petit Verdot 3%, Cabernet Franc 1%

Wines

Château Lascombes; Chevalier de Lascombes; Le Haut-Médoc de Lascombes; La Côte, 100% Merlot, from 2022

In history

A third growth for Franck in 1824 and 1845, a second for Jullien in 1832; Alexis Lichine’s group from 1952; MACSF, 2011 to 2022

Sources: Château Lascombes, the estate · Château Lascombes, the grand vin · Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Lascombes · CIVB, the classifications of 1855 · Decanter, Lascombes sold to Lawrence Wine Estates · Decanter, Axel Heinz leaves Ornellaia for Lascombes · Château Lascombes, the Chevalier of an historic terroir · Château Lascombes, a transatlantic love story · Château Lascombes, the vision · Château Lascombes, the wines · Château Lascombes, La Côte · MACSF, press release on Château Lascombes