Lacoste Borie 2020

The 2020 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 94/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: An early, hot year, with a harvest under pressure: a dense, juicy classic, ripe without heaviness.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

The vintage

The 2020 vintage will remain in our memory not just because of its quality but also because it was our first “masked harvest”. It is characterized by its precocity, which applied to every stage of the season.

Everything began with a winter of 2019/2020 which was very wet and mild. The heavy rainfall replenished the water table which had become very low.

Budburst was early, from the 20th March onwards, at the same time as our “confinement” in France. On Monday 30th April the vintage was due to be presented to the world, but nothing in 2020 went according to plan, and it snowed that day. Luckily the snow melted quickly on the warm soil, but this cold spell added to our concerns at this already complicated time.

The sun and spring temperatures soon meant that the vines could continue to develop. The first flowers appeared in early May to celebrate a return to normality, and the rain was only intermittent. The return of the sun and warmth allowed for a quick and uniform flowering. Spring and its changeable weather required great vigilance on behalf of the vine grower as the conditions were ideal for vineyard diseases, but thanks to our caution and care for our vines this risk was kept at bay. From mid-June, we had dry weather combined with increasing temperatures which continued until the weekend of August 12th, when we had heavy rain. The wines had been in need of moisture, and this permitted the “veraison” to take place under good conditions. The first grapes were seen to change colour at the end of July and beginning of August, and then to continue towards optimum ripeness. The month of August had hot days and cool nights. The significant difference between daytime and night-time temperatures meant that the grapes could mature steadily, keeping their fresh aromas, and attaining an impressive ripeness of tannin. We took out our secateurs on September 14th to attack the Merlots under record breaking temperatures for the month of September. Between 36 and 38 degrees Centigrade, 96 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The harvest was very healthy, the grapes highly concentrated, and the tannins very ripe. We finished picking our Cabernet Sauvignon on the 26th September.

Blend of the 2020 vintage

Figures from the 2020 sheet

• 38 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Long vatting (around 3 weeks).

Ageing

In French oak barrels (45% new barrels each vintage) for between 14 to 16 months depending on the vintage.

Terroir

Grand-Puy-Lacoste enjoys an exceptional terroir. The soil is made up of gravels, that is to say alluvial stones that provide excellent drainage. The distinctive character of the Médoc soil is part of a history going back two million years, for the gravels are geological witnesses of the Quaternary era. These stones, brought down from the Pyrenees and carried by the Garonne, were deposited over time on the banks of the Gironde, its estuary. Today the layers, of varying depth, are made up of gravel mixed with sand and a little clay. This gravelly soil has the advantage of retaining heat and returning it to the vine at night, which eliminates excessive temperature swings and encourages the harmonious ripening of the bunches.