Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste: Tasting & Drinking
My early encounters with the wines of Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste were somewhat sporadic, typically a wine here or there; these included a handful from the 1980s, odd examples from the 1970s and 1990s, and so on. In some vintages these wines were superb, and in soon became clear to me why Grand-Puy-Lacoste is one of a handful of Pauillac châteaux to have such a strong and committed following. For sure, in difficult vintages such as 1997 the wines did not perhaps shine so brightly, but frankly this is true of most wines in such vintages.
In more recent vintages, however, quality has climbed in a very noticeable fashion, mirroring the improvements made at some other Pauillac châteaux, such as Château Pichon-Baron and Château Pontet-Canet in particular. That is to say the wines, having been pushed to the level where they were very good, have now been taken even higher.
A taste of the 2009 vintage is convincing enough, but the vintage to seek out to confirm this for yourselves is the 2010. At the primeurs, in what was generally a very good vintage across the board, a handful of wines on the left and right banks stood out as having produced something more precise, more elegant and more exacting than many other wines found along the length and breadth of the Gironde. The 2010 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste was one such wine, and it is for this reason I include a picture of it here.
Whereas I am often content to include a simple label image in my profiles, I thought I should photograph the 2010 because no other vintage of Grand-Puy-Lacoste is quite as convincing. It is the 2010 that clearly indicates that, beyond the first growths, it is not just Château Pichon-Baron and Château Pontet-Canet that should take all our attention in Pauillac. Any one of these three wines should force us to ask ourselves whether or not there really is that much difference between the first growths and these Pauillac estates, in some vintages at least.
In more recent vintages, while the 2011, 2012 and 2014 were decent enough, things start picking up with the 2015 and begin to get really interesting in 2016. There followed strong results in 2016 and the 2018–2019–2020 triumvirate, but even in weaker vintages such as 2017 and 2021 the wines show well. Both the 2022 and 2023 vintages also have fine potential.
