Winery Story

Château Lascombes

Château Lascombes, a second growth in the 1855 Classification, amassed one of the largest and most diverse vineyard holdings in Margaux during the 20th century. For most of the modern era, it’s been a shadow of its former 1855 self. That sentence is finally being rewritten. When I visited the estate in April for the en primeur tastings, the man holding the pen was Axel Heinz. Axel arrived in 2023 as CEO and winemaker after eighteen years building the reputation of Ornellaia and the Merlot icon Masseto in Bolgheri. His approach is best described as a terroir-first reset: a return to the vineyards that earned the estate its rank, and the confidence — born partly of being an outsider — to add something genuinely new.

The Outsider

Vines have grown on this corner of the Médoc since at least the twelfth century, but the estate as we recognize it dates to the early seventeenth century—to Chevalier Antoine de Lascombes, born in 1625, whose name the property eventually took. For a long time, it was known as Château de Ségonnes; the Lascombes name...