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Château Lagrange Winery Guide

Cellar Tours Insight — Since 2003, Cellar Tours has planned private wine journeys through the world’s leading wine regions, pairing tailor-made itineraries with VIP winery visits, fine dining, and expert regional guidance.

Winery Overview

Few estates in Bordeaux have the ‘wow’ factor quite like this one. Château Lagrange is an imposing and immense estate unrivaled in the region for its buildings’ scale and grandeur. Although it is positioned relatively far inland in the Saint Julien wine region, it seems to stretch forever towards the Gironde estuary; visitors are even afforded a view from the Bell-tower! Its origins as a wine estate date back to the 1630s and remained in the Cours family until 1712. A distant relative, Charles de Branne, inherited it and ran it successfully for many years after. Another relative, Jean Cabarrus, brought the estate in 1976 and substantially improved the vineyards. Then, the politician Comte Duchatel owned the estate from 1842 to 1875, and at this time, it was renowned as the largest estate in the Medoc region.

Granted, size isn’t everything, but Lagrange looked set to enjoy a pretty rosy future until now. However, the next owner was a rather mad Englishman who built an aviary inside the Château for his collection of exotic birds. Imagine the mess! He was arguably more interested in his collection of cockatiels than in making wine. Gradually the vineyards shrank. The owner from 1925 was Manuel Cendoya, but as the depression sank in, he began selling off the vineyards. Things began to look bleak for the estate and would not improve for many years.

Salvation came from a Japanese company, Suntory, which brought Lagrange in 1983. By the time they took control, there were only 56 hectares of vineyards, mostly Merlot. The energy and time they put into the restoration of the property was nothing short of phenomenal. Suntory spent a small fortune on the estate, investing almost 19 million pounds in a complete renovation of the buildings. Of course, a wine estate is more than pretty buildings, which is why the company hired the talented Marcel Ducasse to run the Château, which he did until his retirement in 2007. A second wine was created to enhance quality under his direction, and the vineyards were doubled in size. Lagrange now produces superb wines to match the exquisite nature of its revitalized estate, a definite must-see on your tour of this fascinating wine region. Contact us here for more info on our “winemaker for a morning” events.

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Further Reading

Author

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James Lawrence

With a passion for food & drink that verges on the obsessive, wine writer James Lawrence has traveled the world in search of the perfect tipple. To date, nothing has surpassed the 1952 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva, tasted in the cobweb-filled cellars with owner María José. Meanwhile, James has been writing for a wide variety of publications for over 12 years, including Telegraph, Decanter, Harpers, The Drinks Business, and Wine Business International. He lives in South Wales and returns to his former university city, Bilbao, as much as possible.

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