2023 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac, Bordeaux

77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot. 48 hl/ha. Cask sample.

Relatively subdued but upright, firm, and structured, it is clear-cut and classic in form. It shouldn’t disappoint GPL fans. 

Drink 2032 - 2045

The 2023 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is powerful, reticent and shy, revealing black cherry, gravel, scorched earth and liquorice notes. It’s rich, ample and quite potent, marked by an intriguing mix of super-ripe Merlots and later-picked Cabernet. All of this fruit was picked before the September rain, so the tannins are a touch aggressive. Time in bottle should help this come together.

Drink 2033 - 2063

The Grand Vin 2023 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste checks in as 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot with the élevage in 75% new French oak. 

Its deeper plum hue is followed by beautiful aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, and flowers. This carries to a medium-bodied Pauillac with a pure, elegant mouthfeel, ripe, polished tannins, and beautifully integrated oak. It’s a little gem of a 2023 with the pure, focused, elegant, yet concentrated style of the vintage.

The 2023 Grand Puy Lacoste was picked September 11 to 28 at 48hL/ha and matured in 75% new oak. 

It has a classic “GPL” bouquet with blackberry, pencil box, and light marine scents. It is obviously not as powerful as the previous vintage. Yet, it is in a typical style, beautifully defined and focused—just a touch of cracked black pepper surfaces with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with a gentle but insistent grip, just a light bitter edge lending tension and nerve. I perceive good depth here, but this is not a powerhouse of a Pauillac is GPL ever?). It fans out toward the finish whilst maintaining control. This wine has an impressive linearity; thus, I suspect it will require less bottle age than recent vintages.

Drink 2029 - 2052

It’s a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot that was picked between September 11-28.

Aromas of cassis, cigar wrapper, pencil shavings, and violets introduce the 2023 Grand-Puy-Lacoste, a medium—to full-bodied, fleshy, and supple wine that’s seamless and sensual. It has good depth at the core, beautifully integrated tannins, and a lively, charming profile.

Cassis notes are accentuated by almost cranberry freshness, along with red apple and black pepper aromas, which presage a palate somewhat crunchy and brambly in its fruit expression - with the lovely nuance of seashell freshness plus pleasing mid-palate juiciness. No less than 12% wine was used to accentuate a sense of structure from the 77% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, but there is a sense of reticence to the wine for which barrel ageing in 75% new oak should lend needed breadth and a higher likely score. 

But it remains a solid and more high-toned expression of this great terroir instead of a great vintage such as 2016, 2019, 2020, or 2022, where I was more enthusiastic—nevertheless, a wine that you can enjoy sooner than those vintages but also capable of cellaring.

Drink 2027 - 2050

75% new oak, rest one year old, around 60% of production in this 1st wine this is similar each year, as here the vineyard footprint has not changed since 1855). Harvest September 11 to 28.

We are in classic Grand Puy Lacoste territory here, great balance, good freshness, Pauillac typicity, less concentration than 2022, showing instead bright cassis and blackberry fruits, salted cracker edge, liquorice, graphite, spiced cocoa beans, and flashes of fresher redcurrants on the close of play. Great quality, and you can see the fine ageing potential stretching ahead.

Drink 2030 - 2046

77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot.

Beautiful purity and freshness to the blackcurrants and blackberries with subtle cedar and graphite notes. Medium- to full-bodied. So polished and silky, almost weightless. It’s very long.