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by Insa-Cornelia Mueller
Château Lascombes in the Bordeaux region of Margaux bears the name of its first owner, Chevalier de Lascombes, who was born in 1625. At the turn of the 18th century, Jean-Francoise de Lascombes invested his wealth in making a great wine at Lascombes. The current Château Lascombes was built in 1867. Since 2001, the property has been in ownership of the US company Colony Capital and undergone various transformations in order to produces a vine, worthy of a second classed growth. This includes vat tanks made from French oak and hand selection of grapes before and after destemming. The Château Lascombes vineyard stretches over eighty-four hectares within the Margaux appellation. The parcels of land making up the property of Château Lascombes consist of three main categories: clay limestone and clay gravel suitable for growing Merlot, clay limestone and gavel for Cabernet Sauvignon and gravel for Petit Verdot. After a total ageing period of 18 to 20 months, the wine is fined in the traditional manner with egg white, before being bottled. The Château Lascombes grape plant varieties have an average age of thirty five years. The grapes are about 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvingnon and 5% Petit Verdot. Annual production is 250,000 bottles for Château Lascombes and 70,000 bottles for Chevalier de Lascombes. The Pocket Wine Guide by Hugh Johnson rates Château Lascombes with three stars (out of five and coloured is for good value in its class) and recommends vintages as follows (bold years should be ready for drinking and a particular successful vintage is marked with a '): 70' 82 83' 85 86 88 89' 90' 95 96' 98' 99 00 01 02. Address (also
for Guided Tours):
The cellars
of Château Lascombes can be visited by appointment and there are
multilingual guides available to show visitors around. Château Lascombes
may also be rented for meetings, seminars or accommodation. Tasting menus
are available upon request.
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