Château Lagrange

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The Château Lagrange is one of the famous wineries of Bordeaux . Since the classification of 1855 , the winery has been classified as Troisième Grand Cru Classé , the third highest level of classifications.

It is located west of Saint-Julien behind the neighbor Château Gruaud-Larose on the border with St. Laurent. The estate has been owned by the Japanese beverage company Suntory since 1983 . The best wines from younger years are those from 2000, 1996, 1990 and 1986, all of which the wine critic Robert Parker rated with more than 91 Parker points .

Lagrange is relatively large with a total of 157 hectares of land and 113 hectares of vineyards, 65% of which are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon , 28% with Merlot and 7% with Petit Verdot . The wine is aged in barriques , which are renewed 60% annually. On average, around 270,000 bottles of red wine are produced from Grand Vin .

The second wine from Château Lagrange is called Les Fiefs de Lagrange . Approx. 370,000 bottles of this wine are filled annually. 4 hectares are used to grow white grape varieties for the production of the white wine Les Arums de Lagrange , which has been offered since 1997 , which is made from the grape varieties Sauvignon Blanc (60%), Sémillon (30%) and Muscadelle (10%).

Château Lagrange is accompanied and advised by the oenologist Jacques Boissenot and his son Eric.

history

Viticulture can only be traced back to the early 18th century. The Baron de Brane was the owner of the agricultural land that formerly belonged to the lords of the Maison Noble de Lagrange Monteil. De Brane also belonged to Château Mouton at that time and, a little later, to Château Brane-Cantenac . It cannot be ruled out that the vineyards were first created by Baron de Brane.

Later the estate was in the hands of Arbouet de La Bernède, who probably also built a first part of the current manor building. In a letter dated May 24, 1787 Thomas Jefferson certifies the wines already the rank of troisième crus (under the name Arboete). In 1796 the merchant Jean-Valère Cabarrus (Bordeaux July 6th 1758 - December 9th 1829) acquired the winery. He made wine known to the aristocratic courts through his political influence as Minister of Finance in Spain under Napoléon I and expanded the estate considerably. In 1820 he also had the very characteristic massive residential tower added to the manor building. The trading house Cabarrus got into financial difficulties after the death of Jean-Valère and was forced to sell Château Lagrange for 650,000 francs to John Lewis Brown. Brown's daughter and Cabarrus' son had been married since 1820. John Lewis Brown had owned the Château Cantenac-Brown since 1806 . He invested considerable sums in the expansion of the wine cellar, but took over financially.

In 1842 Brown sold Chateau Lagrange to Charles Marie Tanneguy Duchâtel for 775,000 francs . Due to his political mandate, Duchâtel was never on site and transferred responsibility for day-to-day business to Galos. Galos increased the quality of the wines through drainage measures in the vineyards and through modern cellar technology.

After Duchâtel's death in 1860, his widow and a little later his son took over the management of the 300 hectare estate. But already in 1875 he sold Château Lagrange to the de Muicy Louys family. However, the timing of the takeover was extremely unfavorable as only one year later the Bordeaux wine-growing region went through a deep crisis due to the phylloxera disaster and shortly afterwards due to the fungal diseases real and downy mildew .

In 1918, the Société Immobilière des Grands Crus finally took over the winery for 12 million francs. The same company had previously taken over the goods Château Brane-Cantenac and Château d'Issan . However, it did not succeed in increasing the quality of the run-down property to the usual good level. Only 7 years later, in 1925, the Spanish Basques Manuel Cendoya and José Telleria bought the winery. Due to the Second World War and some bad harvests caused by the climate, the owners got into financial difficulties. In 1970 they sold a 32 hectare vineyard to Jean-Eugène Borie to repay their debt. Other vine parcels went to Henri Martin, who was interested in an extension of his Château Gloria .

When the Cendoya family finally separated from Château in 1983, only 157 hectares of land remained, of which only 56 hectares were planted with vines. The new owner, the Japanese company Suntory. An ambitious program was used to create new vineyards and invest in new cellar technology. In the first 6 years Suntory hired the well-known oenologist Émile Peynaud and for 10 years Michel Delon from Château Léoville-las-Cases was there to help.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Gutenberg Project

    “Of red wines, there are four vineyards of the first quality; viz. 1. Chateau Margau, belonging to the Marquis d'Agincourt, who makes about one hundred and fifty tons, of one thousand bottles each. He has engaged to Jernon, a merchant. 2. La Tour de Segur, en Saint Lambert, belonging to Monsieur Miresmenil, who makes one hundred and twenty-five tons. 3. Hautbrion, belonging to two thirds to M. le Comte de Femelle, who has engaged to Barton, a merchant: the other third to the Comte de Toulouse, at Toulouse. The whole is seventy-five tons. 4. Chateau de la Fite, belonging to the President Pichard, at Bordeaux, who makes one hundred and seventy-five tons. The wines of the three first, are not in perfection till four years old: those of de la Fite, being somewhat lighter, are good at three years; that is, the crop of 1786 is good in the spring of 1789. These growths, of the year 1783, sell now at two thousand livres the ton; those of 1784, on account of the superior quality of that vintage, sell at twenty-four hundred livres; those of 1785, at eighteen hundred livres; those of 1786, at eighteen hundred livres, though they had sold at first for only fifteen hundred livres. Red wines of the second quality, are Rozan, Dabbadie or Lionville, la Rose, Qui-rouen, Durfort; in all eight hundred tons, which sell at one thousand livres, new. The third class, are Galons, Mouton, Gassie, Arboete, Pontette, de Ferme, Candale; in all two thousand tons, at eight or nine hundred livres. After these, they are reckoned common wines, and sell from five hundred livres, down to one hundred and twenty livres, the ton. All red wines decline after a certain age, losing color, flavor, and body. Those of Bordeaux begin to decline at about seven years old. "

    - Thomas Jefferson