Château La Lagune 2021

James Suckling

Fresh and fine with tight-grained, lightly stemmy tannins. Violets, raspberries, currants and orange zest. Medium-bodied, tight and fine. 70% cabernet sauvignon, 20% merlot and 10% petit verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes.

Jeb Dunnuck

The 2021 Château La Lagune is rock-solid, with considerable finesse and elegance as well as medium body, silky, polished tannins, and classic notes of both red and black fruits as well as spicy wood and tobacco. My money is on this ending up being an outstanding wine, and it should have 15+ years of prime drinking.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

A pretty middle-weight, the 2021 La Lagune offers up inviting aromas of sweet berries and plums mingled with hints of licorice, loamy soil, raw cocoa and cigar wrapper. Medium-bodied, ample and succulent, it's fleshy and seamless, with an ample core of fruit, bright acids and melting tannins. A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 10% Petit Verdot, it checks in at a modest 12.5% alcohol. Tasted four times, twice at the château.

One of the Médoc's southernmost and most precocious sites, La Lagune occupies two domes of fine gravel, some 1.5 meters deep, that becomes sandier in the vineyard's lower-lying sectors. The trend when replanting has been for Cabernet Sauvignon to displace Merlot on the prime sectors of the vineyard, and farming is organic (certified from 2020 on), with cover crops and less-frequent mechanical cultivation than in the past. Winemaking is classical, with gentle pump-overs, and the press wine is carefully selected before inclusion. In the cellar, maturation occurs with some 50% new oak. The result is a rather sensual, seamless wine, with plenty of fleshy charm and fine aging potential.

VertdeVin

The nose is fresh, elegant, racy and reveals controlled power, fine grain, energy and a certain complexity. There are notes of pulpy wild blackcurrant, fresh blackberry and, more slightly, fresh/crisp wild strawberry combined with hints of lily, nutmeg, red berries and a discreet hint of varietal/savoury, toasted almond. The palate is fruity and offers a tangy/juicy structure, good definition, juiciness, acidity, suppleness, tension, harmony, purity, elegance and a lovely airiness. On the palate this wine expresses juicy/fresh raspberry, juicy/pulpy cherry and slightly crunchy strawberry notes combined with hints of fresh/acidulated blackcurrant as well as fine varietal, fresh sap, toast, bergamot, blueberry and a subtle hint of mocha. The tannins are elegant, racy, finely chalky. A nice saline touch on the finish/persistence.

Adrian van Velsen - vvWine.ch