Chateau Lasségue is a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru estate with California connections. The owners are Barbara Banke/Jackson Family Wines and the Pierre Seillan family. They bought the property with 60 acres of vineyard in 2003 and improved the winery the following year.

Seillan had spent 20 years as a vigneron in Bordeaux when Jess Jackson lured him to California in the mid-1990s. His first project there was planting vines and then making the wines of Verité, which produces stunningly good wines from high in the hills of northern Sonoma County. The three different Verité cuvées are inspired by the Left Bank, Pomerol, and Saint-Emilion. Seillan is still vigneron for Verité, as well as for Anakota, Chateau Lasségue, Chateau Vignot (also in Saint Emilion), and two properties in Tuscany.

The property is in the Cote de Saint-Emilion, an area home to many of the best chateaus of the AOC. There’s a lot of limestone there, along with the clay for which the Right Bank is well known. The limestone is important because it is relatively dry and warm in wet years, but doles out much needed moisture during hot, dry vintages. 

The deep-rooted vines of Chateau Lasségue are 40-50 years old, facing south and southwest. Varietal distribution is roughly 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Yields are limited to about 1,400 liters of fruit per acre. 

The fruit is divided into 31 small lots based on variety and ten soil-defined zones. Those lots ferment separately in small, temperature-controlled, stainless tanks. The wines age 12 months in barrels from a Jackson-owned cooper. Seillan can select the wood from 15 forests and has ten levels of toast from which to choose. The wines are held in bottle until they’ve reached the beginning of their drinking window. Thus, the 2011 reviewed below is a current release.

2011 Lasségue Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 91 13.5% 750ml $65

Opaque ruby-purple in the glass with generous aromas of ferrous earth, leather, mocha, dark fruit, and savory dry herb. The palate is nearly full-bodied and is replete with fine-grained, chalky tannins. Flavors resemble the nose, emphasizing mocha, dark mineral, and chewy, black plum. This intense, masculine take on Saint-Emilion will be best with another few years in the cellar. For near term drinking though, I prefer it without decanting.

Copyright Fred Swan 2019. Images courtesy of Chateau Lasségue. All rights reserved.