Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse: Tasting & Drinking
Early encounters with the wines of Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse produced rather varied results. Two stabs at the 2004 within a year or two of the vintage were impressive, as the wine showed very well on each occasion, with my second tasting a little more convincing than the first (when it was up against some stiff competition at the annual UGC tasting). The 2005 was equally good, and it seemed as though the château might be in the ascendant.
During the years that followed, however, found the wines to be less interesting, blighted to some extent by some more difficult vintages, including 2007. This cannot be the sole explanation, however, as even in very benevolent vintages such as 2009 and 2010 I did not see the potential developing here that I hoped for. This is a shame, as it seemed to me that some of the vineyards seem well located, and the input from the Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse team was clearly dedicated.
Nevertheless, change was afoot; the property had changed hands, a new team introduced, and then in more recent years the property saw significant developments, with restructured vineyards, a revitalised team, and the cellars received a makeover in 2012, and then a major overhaul completed in 2023. Contemporaneous with these developments under the ‘Renaissance’ project, quality has undeniably climbed. Skipping past 2013 for perhaps obvious reasons, the subsequent vintages were decent, including 2016, although little more than that. But then a glimmer of a new level of quality was hinted at in 2018, and the wine seemed almost transformed in the years which followed, with very good wines indeed in the 2019 and 2020 vintages. And while 2021 and 2024 are nothing to get excited about, this is also true at many other Médoc estates; more noteworthy is a decent 2023, and a super 2022, the latter clearly one of the best wines ever made here, and one worthy of this property’s classification.
This is clearly now a property worth following. Credit to Anne Le Naour and her team who, with the financial backing of CA Grands Crus, and new cellars fully operation, have achieved something very impressive here. (6/4/07, updated 3/10/13, 22/2/14, 3/3/26)
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