Château La Lagune, 3 eme Grand Cru Classé, Haut Médoc

The wine-growing region Haut Médoc is closer to the city of Bordeaux than any other appellation in the Médoc. It takes barely 30 minutes by car to reach the village of Ludon. The impressive Château La Lagune with its expansive farm buildings on a slightly higher terrace has been located here since the 16th century.

Between the vineyards on alluvial gravelly soils and the Garonne River there is a wide strip called Palus, a type of soil which, although wet and very fertile, is not suitable for growing vines to produce quality wines.

The château was rated the third highest quality level in 1855, but during an eventful history with numerous changes of ownership, the original high Quality standards cannot be maintained throughout.

Château La Lagune

The beautiful building of the Château La Lagune was first built between 1730 and 1734.
The Sèze family acquired the winery for 52 years and in 1956 they sold it to Georges Brunet, who gave La Lagune a brief "high". The owner changed again in 1964 when it passed to the owners of the Ayala champagne house.

In 2000, the Frey family from Switzerland took over the Château La Lagune and invested large sums of money. At the age of 24, Caroline Frey, an oenologist trained in Bordeaux (best of her year), penetrated the Médoc, which had until then been considered a male bastion, and brought the Château La Lagune, which was on the decline, back on the right track.

Château La Lagune - Barrique maturing cellar

The critics, especially Robert Parker, were enthusiastic about their first vintage, the 2004, "Wow, this winery has "returned with resounding quality," wrote Robert Parker at the time. It produces wines that are better than anything La Lagune made during its glory days in the 1970s and 1980s.

Caroline Frey's says "The Bordeaux growing region needed to reorient itself."What is needed are better wines that are produced in such a way that they respect nature more.» The winemaker, who also studied organic chemistry, converted her business to organic farming in 2016 and to producing biodynamically since the 2022 vintage. The aim of this approach is, among other things, to improve the resistance of the vines and the soil fertility. Source: Neue Züricher Zeitung

Data from Château La Lagune

• Size of the vineyards: 110 hectares
• Type of soil in the vineyards: Gravel
• Grape varieties: 60 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 % Merlot, 10 % Petit Verdot
• Methode of farming and wine making: from 2016 organic, from 2022 biodynamically
• Aging: 18 month in barriques, of which 50 % new ones