2014 Lassegues

The 2014 Lassegue, which is the Saint Emilion Grand Cru owned by the Jackson Family, comes in a preposterously heavy bottle with what felt like an armour-plated capsule! It is clearly designed to impress even before the bottle has been uncorked. Deep in color, the bouquet is tightly wound with blackberry, boysenberry and light cedar notes. The new oak comes through strongly for the first 30 minutes, but thankfully it does assimilate after an hour. The palate is full-bodied and has undergone a lot of extraction. It is solid and dense, very powerful and yet what comes through is the winemaking intention rather than the essence of its terroir. However, aeration did benefit this wine, mellowing after an hour and losing just a little of its initial glossiness, manifesting more red fruit and developing a pleasant smooth texture. It needs four or five years in bottle, because that is the way this is built, but it should be worth the wait.