Bordeaux wine

Although most of those estates ranked in the 1855 classification lie within the famous communes of St Estèphe, St Julien, Pauillac and Margaux, there are five (discounting the obvious exception of Haut-Brion) that do not. Perhaps most notable of these is La Lagune, the highest ranked of the handful, and the southernmost classed growth estate of all the Médoc.

Driving north from Bordeaux through the Médoc, along the D2, La Lagune is the first estate that you meet, and for this reason it is sometimes light-heartedly referred to as the premier grand cru of the region. Neither this estate’s location nor its epithet should, however, distract Bordeaux savants from the true worth of this estate; here is a very good source of wines indeed.

Today the estate is in the ownership of the Frey family, who acquired Champagne Ayala (and thus La Lagune) in 2000, subsequently selling the Champagne house to Bollinger in order to fund their acquisition of the Rhône négociant firm Jaboulet, which had been floundering since the death of its patriarch, Gérard.

There was once an invariable policy of 100% new wood for the grand vin, Chateau La Lagune (typically 33000 cases per annum), a longstanding feature of the wine, and a practice more commonly associated with first growths; it certainly tended to make the wine stand out in blind horizontal tastings, but not necessarily for the right reason. Under Caroline Frey this figure has been reined in, and is now more like 55%, and the wine will rest there for up to 18 months; after their second year the old barrels are shipped off for use at Jaboulet. The second wine is Moulin La Lagune.