2015 Château Lascombes

The 2015 Lascombes was out of sorts when I re-tasted the wine after bottling, but a year later, it has settled down and is one of the best wines from the estate in recent vintages. It offers delightfully pure, beautifully defined black cherry and blueberry fruit; pressed violet aromas gradually unfurl with aeration. The palate is very well balanced with crisp tannin, which is perhaps still a little rigid but provides a symmetrical framework upon which the pure, graphite-tinged black fruit rests. One to watch. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

- Neal Martin (01/2019)

Immediate depth to the aromas of dark cherries, plums and blackberries with subtly spicy and cedary oak amid stony, minerally accents. The palate has immense depth and presence without relying on brute force. This is all about charm and fluidity. Superb wine. Try from 2023. (02/2018)

A big, bombastic wine from this estate that offers serious amounts of sweet currants, blackberry jam, licorice and oak, the 2015 Château Lascombes has beautiful depth of fruit, a thick, opulent texture and sweet tannin. It’s not going to appeal to the traditionalist out there, but it’s a smokin’ good bottle of wine. Give it 3-4 years and enjoy over the following two decades. (11/2017)

Lascombes 2015 is medium to deep garnet in color. It is a little broody to start, opening out to deliver notes of warm cassis, black cherry compote, and fruit cake plus hints of charcoal and violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is filled with juicy black fruits, supported by fine-grained tannins and just enough freshness, with a fragrant finish. (11/2022)

Enticing, with a light mulled spice note moving amid the red and black currant fruit, while flashes of bramble, alder, juniper and tobacco skitter through. Reserved but lengthy in feel through the finish, with latent grip and a smoldering tobacco detail. Best from 2030 through 2032. 25,000 cases made.

- J.M.

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Lascombes has a beautiful nose of black forest cake, violets, cassis and tilled soil with wafts of garrigue and potpourri. Medium-bodied, very fine and elegant with great intensity of restrained, earthy flavors, it has a long, savory finish.

- Lisa Perrotti-Brown (02/2018)