Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2009
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Suckling
James - Decanter
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Spectator
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Enthusiast
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Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark and delicately spicy this a very complete medium-full bodied 2009 that's not a jot too ripe or too firm. Beautiful balance through the long polished finish. Drink or hold.
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Decanter
From 50ha of vines in a single block of gravelly soils, this gives concentrated cassis and blackberry aromatics on the nose, with the juiciness providing interest all the way through the palate. I love this for its Pauillac-ness, and it's so mouthwatering that you have barely finished one sip before you want another. Lovely quality, perhaps not as perfectly balanced as the 2005, but just as satisfying. It's one of the best 2009s in the lineup that's not exorbitantly priced.
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Wine Spectator
This is a step up, with ample black currant confiture and roasted fig notes allied to a racy graphite and iron spine. Very sleek through the finish, despite its heft, with a long finish filled with cassis bush and tobacco. Best from 2013 through 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
A complex, dusty tannin wine, layering smoky wood and black fruits with the firmest dry character. Very intense, rich, dense and potentially powerful.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet in color, the 2009 Grand-Puy-Lacoste opens with a nose of sweaty leather, damp earth, baked cherries and dried mulberries with touches of fried herbs, black olives and cast iron pan. Medium-bodied, firm and chewy, this is a more elegantly styled 2009 with provocative herbal sparks and a ferrous finish.
Other Vintages
2022- Vinous
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- Vinous
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Guide
Connoisseurs' -
Enthusiast
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James - Vinous
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Robert
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Spirits
Wine &
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Wine
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.