Chateau Lagrezette Dame Honneur Malbec 2019

Cédric Blanc was studying science at the University in Bordeaux, during a job forum, He met an oenologist and his intervention was so passionate that he chose to become a winemaker. My first vintage was 1998 at Château Clarke (Listrac-Médoc) during his oenologist degree. Afterward, he worked a lot in the Médoc area in different châteaux like Phélan Ségur or Chasse-Spleen. Then, I went on to work for Moët Hennessy Estates & Wines as assistant winemaker for Cloudy Bay (New Zealand), Cape Mentelle (Australia), and Newton Vineyard (Napa Valley). 

Working in New Zealand and then Napa, he learned very different lessons. At Cloudy Bay, he learned the nuances of working with many different grapes. In Napa, the high alcohol that is achieved is very unlike Bordeaux, so it was interesting to learn how to finish the sugar levels and fermentation. 

He is more gentle with the grapes. When arrived at Château Lagrézette, the wines were already good, but in his opinion, too strong. He wanted wines full-bodied but also elegant. In 2011, with M. Perrin’s help, we changed the way we filled our ferment tanks by using gravity and also plunging for extraction. This way, the wines are still powerful and full-bodied but finer. I also wait to get the right maturity of the grapes to obtain very ripe tannins, without getting overripe and still keeping good acidity. I worked a lot on the balance between alcohol, acidity, and tannic structure. 

I also changed the cooper—I am very focused on my choice of barrels. We need to respect the Malbec expression. The aging in barrel is to get very round tannins, but not to give oak flavors.