Chateau Lassegue, St Emilion Grand Cru 2000
Another roast dinner, another bottle of good red. Claret on a November sunday afternoon, as good a time as any I could think of.
We have just run out of Chateau Lassegue 2000’s and that’s depressing, but the memory of this wine will last long and if I manage to find more I will be happy to buy. Lassegue is one of those meticulously crafted classic St Emilion’s that wins fans quickly. An aged succulent flavour from a very good year. You may well be surprised at how good this wine is for the price bracket. Grand Cru roughly means that it is one of the better St Emilions and in a group of about 200 others, but the classification is far from sensible. Subjectively I think Lassegue has a chance of joining the Grand Cru Classes, which is a whole other tier, and price range and fiercely contested. After that there are the world famous Premier Grand Crus Classe’s, and the two Premier Grand Cru A’s
The typical blend in a good St Emilion is Cabernet Franc, Merlot and a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon. Location is of enormous importance in the region, with a surprisingly diverse range of soil, temperature and sunlight that can create a miracle in the glass. I’ll go into that more with a couple of other St Emilions I have some history with, but for now if you haven’t tried a good wine from this region buy one of these, they are around £20 for the 2000-