Lagrange
About Château Lagrange
A well-loved Saint-Julien producer with a loyal following among Bordeaux collectors, Château Lagrange was first known as Maison Noble de Lagrange Monteil and was owned by Baron de Brane during the 18th century. The Baron, who also owned , Château Brane-Cantenac and Brane-Mouton (the Château Mouton Rothschild that we know of today), bottled wines of Château Lagrange as Baron Saint-Julien. The estate changed hands numerous times over the years and saw its first break under the ownership of Count Duchatel, who installed a drainage system in the vineyard in 1842 – a seemingly trivial detail today that was extremely innovative during its time and brought an immediate improvement in quality to its wines.
Despite this, the estate struggled to remain profitable and was forced to reduce its acreage over the decades, selling portions of its massive 280-hectare vineyard to other estates such as Château Ducru-Beaucaillou and Château Gloria.
Classified in 1855 as a third-growth estate, Château Lagrange often flies under the radar and for many years has been undervalued and underrated despite its excellent vineyards and grand vin.
Eventually acquired by Suntory in 1983, who wasted no time flexing in its financial might to make sweeping improvements to the entire estate, Château Lagrange has been consistently receiving impressive scores from the world's leading wine critics. The enhancements are starting to pay off and Château Lagrange is yielding impressive results from their efforts, allowing the wines to offer excellent value alongside increasing quality.
Viniculture
Château Lagrange has one of the largest single vineyards among all of the classified estates in the Médoc, around 280 acres (110 ha), which typically produces 23,000 cases per year.
A high proportion of their vineyard is mostly planted with the obvious choice for the region, cabernet sauvignon, with vines averaging 30 years of age. Finally, the rest of the vineyard is made up of around 28% merlot, and 7% petit verdot.
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