(96+ points) Based on 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, the 2022 Château Lascombes pulls from 40% of the total production and was aged 18 months mostly in barrels (60% new) with a small portion in foudre. This inky hued beauty boasts a rich, concentrated, full-bodied, well-oaked style as well as pure cassis and darker berry fruits, some graphite, scorched earth, and licorice nuances, terrific overall balance, and a great finish. This more modern styled, pure, seamless beauty will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and keep for 30 years.

This is a full-bodied Bordeaux with lots of velvety tannins and intensity. It’s a bit old-school now with so much fruit and texture, but it’s impressive, to say the least. Plenty of blackcurrant and blueberry character. Shows the richness of the vintage. Best after 2030.

Lascombes is a vintage over the past few decades that has shown the heat in the hottest vintages, but while this is exuberant, it is well balanced with cassis, damson, cocoa bean, fennel, liquorice bud, peony and crushed rocks. Has clearly improved over ageing, which is rare in 2022. One to watch, especially with the changes that they have in mind. Good stuff. Lawrence Wine Estates owners, with Axel Heinz director, who did the blend for this vintage, but was not at the estate during the growing season.

Dried flowers, exotic spices and some herbal notes join black fruit on the nose. Compact and filling on the palate, tannins are massy and firm and although there is clear juiciness, the tannins are doing all the talking right now. Not as easy as some, there's tension and some restriction from cedar and liquorice spice but there's also purity of fruit and a long mentholated, salty stone finish. A touch rustic but that should soften and even out in a few years.

Incense, espresso, flowers, chocolate, and cherries are evident in the perfume. The palate is round, lush, and polished. There is a sweetness to the fruits, which are ripe and fresh, but there is a lot of oak to work through, so wait a bit, or enjoy this in its youth for its display of blackberries, black cherries, espresso, chocolate and creamy textures. Drink from 2028-2050.93 Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-tasting-note/?vintage=2022&wine=Chateau%20Lascombes

The 2022 from Lascombes is a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the remaining 3% being Petit Verdot. A dark, opaque hue in the glass, and a highly scented nose laden with oaky dark chocolate, with notes of rose petal, black cherry, currant and black pepper. It has a dark and brooding intensity, but there is an undeniable sense of breadth and maturity here, and this shows on the palate which is finely polished and laden with bitter dark chocolate, tar, currant and damson, all resting on a firm tannic backbone. A huge and self-confident style here, with delicious grip, which holds together well through to the finish of rich and peppered fruit. This is impressive although it perhaps lacks typicity, although whether the terroir would come to the fore after twenty years in bottle – a possibility – is something we will only answer by coming back to this in 2042. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing what future vintages, under Axel Heinz, who joined Lascombes, in 2023, are like.

The 2022 Lascombes is a dark, potent Margaux. Succulent dark cherry, plum, new leather, licorice, incense and chocolate are all amplified nicely in the glass. Relatively soft contours wrap it all together. The 2022 shows a move in the direction of more energy, even in this freakishly hot, dry year. There are still some signs of the highly extracted style favored here prior to Gaylon Lawrence's acquisition of the château. Overall, though, the 2022 is impressive in that it signals a greater focus on quality through much stricter selection of what goes into the Grand Vin. Historically, Lascombes was two-thirds Grand Vin and one-third second wine, a proportion the new team has essentially inverted. Those achievements are made all the notable given that the new team arrived with the base wines essentially all vinified. This next chapter for Lascombes is going to be very interesting. -- Antonio Galloni

Warm and caressing up front, with a velvety edge to its cassis and black cherry compote flavors, backed by singed black tea, wood spice and walnut husk notes that then leave a subtle, burly edge as they finish. A bit ambitious in style for this warm vintage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2038. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. - JM