Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
France
324
Château Lascombes
Crush on You
Bordeaux, France
Is it possible to fall in love with a winery? It
is only brick and mortar, after all. But what
brick and mortar!
The Château Lascombes winery is a
château in every sense of the word—tall
and Gothic with a narrow roof turret up
front that looks like a witch's hat. Attic
windows sprout from the roof, as do nar-
row chimneys and a dome-capped circular
tower in back. Tall white window frames
only add to the uplifting effect, and to cap
it all off, every bit of brickwork is covered
in thick green foliage. It puts you in a good
mood just to look at it.
Around the back, the production facility
occupies a huge hangarlike building with
giant gray doors; inside is a warehouse
with all the modern necessities of wine-
making—steel tanks, huge oak vats, grape
hoppers, destemmers, a conveyor belt.
Visitors walk right over the underground
vats, with pumps and hoses snaking
around the floor; industrial walkways lead
upstairs to a large attic-style room where
the grapes are dumped in maceration
tanks and cooled down with dry ice. But
the real surprise is downstairs in the base-
ment, where the long barrel room is dra-
matically lit with blue fluorescent lighting,
almost like a disco.
Heading back to the tasting room, you
can get a panorama of the estate's expan-
sive gardens and vines, punctuated by
roses and flower beds (if you're lucky, the
guide may let you have a peek inside the
castle itself, which is surprisingly homey,
with striped curtains, large lamps, and
doilies—domestic bliss). In the tasting
room, the guide explains that the winery
was first founded by a French knight,
Antoine de Lascombes, in the mid-17th
century. In 1885 it was declared a second-
growth winery, a French winery rating that
makes it one of the most prestigious in the
country. Unfortunately, the winery was
mistreated by a series of proprietors
throughout the 20th century—absentee
landlords, a corporate brewer—it was
even used as a military headquarters by
Allied troops in the Second World War.
Amid such uncertainty, the winery under-
performed. Then in 2001 Michel Rolland
stepped in, a modern knight in shining
armor who, under new owners, has over-
seen a huge improvement in the wines.
Their 2004 blend is superb—dark, per-
fumed, and seductive. At last, Château
Lascombes once again has a wine that
lives up to its architecture.
Château Lascombes,
1 Cours de Ver-
dun, Margaux (
&
33/5/5578-89743;
www.
chateau-lascombes.com).
(
Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (31km/19
miles).
L
$$$
Relais de Margaux,
5 Route de
L'Ile Vincent (
&
33/5/5578-83830;
www.
relais-margaux.fr). $$
Le Pavillon de
Margaux,
3 rue Georges Mandel (
&
33/5/
5578-87754;
www.pavillonmargaux.com).
