AN ELEGANT SEGUE
Château Lassègue
2004 Lassègue Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Bordeaux, France

Pierre Seillan was born in Gascony in Southwest France to a winemaking family, and spent two decades in Bordeaux as technical director and winemaker to seven different châteaux. He took his expertise and his wife Monique to California in 1997, where he worked with Jess Jackson and his wife Barbara Banke overseeing the creation of Jackson Park (Bennett Valley), a 110-acre estate on Mount Taylor planted exclusively with Merlot, and the creation of Vérité in Sonoma County. Now, the four of them have teamed up back in France on Château Lassègue, a Grand Cru Bordeaux Estate in Saint-Émilion with a distinctive terroir where the vineyards are bathed in sunlight from dawn to dusk. The vines, which are all at least 35 years old, were grown on a hillside through limestone, clay, and white rock for this particular Bordeaux blend of 60 percent Merlot, 35 percent Cabernet Franc, and 5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. After the grapes were handpicked, crushed, and fermented, the juice was aged 15 months in 100 percent French oak barrels, yielding 5,000 cases. The result is a complex, layered, elegant wine that reveals its tannins in its finish, and will continue to improve with age. Serve it with beef, veal, or poultry.

Rating: 15/20
Price: $50

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For more information, visit www.chateau-lassegue.com