2009 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Hold +1 year or carafe for 4 hours.
Here we are in classic Pauillac territory, still young even at 15 years old, with a ton of tannic grip, slate and pencil lead, cassis and cocoa bean, channeling tension, freshness, and bright fruits. A wonderful example of the vintage, it needs a few more years before really being in its drinking window, but this is exceptional quality—70% new oak for ageing.
Drink 2025 - 2044
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (September 2024)
The 2009 Grand Puy Lacoste is one of the great vintages from this estate in the modern era. It storms from the glass with scents of blackberry, undergrowth, cedar and mint, retaining the classicism of GPL. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, a fine bead of acidity. It is very harmonious with a gorgeous, lithe, graphite-infused finish that lingers in the mouth. Bon vin.
Drink 2022 - 2040
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (March 2019)
Medium to deep garnet in colour, the 2009 Grand-Puy-Lacoste opens with a nose of sweaty leather, damp earth, baked cherries and dried mulberries with touches of fried herbs, black olives and cast iron pan. Medium-bodied, firm and chewy, this is a more elegantly styled 2009 with provocative herbal sparks and a ferrous finish.
Drink 2019 - 2036
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (March 2019)
Tasted blind
Light nose. Very sweet start. Herbal and interesting. Lots of fine tannin and savour. Very distinctive and ambitious. Slight saltiness. Massive. Long. Good value.
Drink 2022 - 2044
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2019)
Dark and delicately spicy, this a very complete medium-full-bodied 2009 that's not a jot too ripe or too firm. Beautiful balance through the long polished finish.
Drink or hold
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (March 2019)
Performing better from bottle than from cask (comparable to their wines 2005, 2000, 1990 and 1982), this is a great classic from Xavier Borie’s estate situated on the back roads west of the town of Pauillac. Hints of spring flowers, crushed rocks, black currants, cedar and earth/underbrush follow its dense ruby/purple colour. Precise and elegant as well as backward and foreboding, it should put on weight in the bottle and evolve for two decades. Very concentrated and velvety-textured, it is a beauty of finesse, balance, purity and nobility. It will benefit from 5-7 more years of bottle age.
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (December 2011)
Like Haut-Batailley, this excellent property is owned by the Borie family and managed by François-Xavier Borie. Its 55 hectares are planted with vines with an average age of over 40 years, ensuring moderate yields and a good fruit concentration. This has long been a favourite of many claret lovers since it offers classic Pauillac typicity – vigorous, muscular and long-lived, with considerable elegance – at a fair price. It is hard to think of any disappointing vintages; this consistency also wins its admirers.
Stephen Brook: Seductive, oaky black cherry and cassis nose. Rich, sumptuous and concentrated without being too extracted. Robust and spicy, it already shows considerable nuance and complexity. It’s forward and fleshy but doesn’t lack grip and structure. Harmonious, with well-judged tannins.
Alun Griffiths MW: Ripe black cassis and hedgerow fruit on the nose. Powerful and enticing. Seamless on the palate with rich, lush fruit backed by ripe but firm tannins and excellent balancing acidity. It has a lovely structure and a real sense of potential for the future. Fresh and elegant.
Steven Spurrier: Very fine, fragrant blackberry fruit, showing great purity and elegance in the Pauillac range. Wild violets and beautiful texture. It is a beautiful, harmonious wine with all the elegance you need for a long future.
I loved the 2009, and like most 2009s, it has a ripe, sexy, yet still classic style that's evolving gracefully, with ample darker currant and black cherry fruits as well as tobacco leaf, cedar pencil, truffly earth, and spice box-like nuances. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, with plenty of mid-palate depth and tannins, it will continue drinking brilliantly for another two decades. It needs an hour in a decanter if drinking any time soon.
Drink 2021 - 2041
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (November 2021)
Good medium ruby. Ripe, slightly high-toned aromas and flavours of cassis and chocolate, lifted by cedar and minerals. Then, more dark berries and minerals in the mouth, complicated by a candied violet nuance. Not particularly large-scaled in what is a generally exotic, very ripe vintage, but intensely flavoured and very well delineated, offering an enticing combination of ripeness and energy for the year. The long finish features a suave tannic backbone and repeating dark berries and violet notes.
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (July 2012)
About this WINE
Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste
Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste is a 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac estate which has for many years been consistently outperforming its classification. Grand-Puy-Lacoste is located a couple of kilometres west of the town of Pauillac and is owned and run by François-Xavier Borie.
Grand-Puy-Lacoste's 90 hectares of vines (Cabernet Sauvignon 75%, Merlot 25%) are in one block surrounding the substantial 19th century château and lie on deep gravel beds over limestone. The grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats and the wine is then matured in oak barriques (50% new) for 18 months.
Grand-Puy-Lacoste combines marvellous cigar box perfume with rich blackcurrant and cassis fruit and velvety power which is the epitome of top class Pauillac at its very best.
Pauillac
Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.
For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.
Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.
Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.
Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.
Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.
Cabernet Sauvignon blend
Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.
In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and Australia.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste is an exceptional wine in 2009. Elegant, concentrated, yet fresh, this has a delicious basket of red and black fruit flavours and wonderful mineral precision. Sweet, ripe tannins and a long, persistent, savoury finish dominate the palate. It is absolutely charming; this could be one of the best buys of the vintage. Sensational.
Berry Bros. & Rudd
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