Central character in the history of Château Lascombes, who bequeathed his name, Knight Antoine de Lascombes is the oldest known owner. Born in 1625, he anchored the estate’s destiny. One of his descendants, Jean-François de Lascombes, councilor in the Parliament of Bordeaux, prosecutor of the king to the admiralty and member of the Academy, later devoted his fortune to the maintenance of the Castle and especially to the quality of his wines. In 1855, Château Lascombes was ranked second in the Grands Crus Classés classification. In 1952, Alexis Lichine, owner and merchant, excellent taster and respected by his peers, bought the Château and restructured it from top to bottom. A man of experience and winemaker, Dominique Befve arrived at the head of Château Lascombes in 2001. His years spent with the greatest – including Château Lafite-Rothschild in Pauillac – drove him on the road to Château Lascombes. Under his direction, the vineyard was restructured and winemaking methods completely revised, thanks in particular to more efficient modern facilities. In 2011, the MACSF group buys Château Lascombes from Colony Capital and becomes owner, with the desire to always hoist higher the quality of the wines and thus perpetuate the work begun by its first owners. Stéphane Dessirier, CEO of MACSF, is now the President of Château Lascombes
The Château Lascombes vineyard covers 120 hectares of vineyards in the Margaux appellation and 10 hectares in the Haut-Médoc appellation. It is currently one of the largest vineyards of the Crus Classés of 1855. The vineyard of Château Lascombes occupies the most sought after plots of Margaux. It benefits from a variety of soils original for the appellation. The vineyard is divided into three distinct groups of roughly equivalent size: a gravelly rump, which bears the Cabernets Sauvignons and the Petit Verdot, the clayey gravel where Merlots and Cabernets Sauvignons are planted, and finally the clay-limestone plots where the Merlot expresses himself perfectly; moreover, this grape variety dominates the vines of the vineyard for half, an originality compared to the other Margaux crus. At Château Lascombes, all the work in the vineyard is done by hand.
