Proof that the Japanese know how to make great Bordeaux

Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the 20th century, this was its sole claim to distinction. Under family management, it consistently failed to justify its ranking. Then the Japanese arrived.

In 1983, Suntory bought Lagrange for £4 million. There were resentments. In 1987, on the floor of the stock exchange just after the Big Bang had transformed the City, a Japanese broker asked an English counterpart if he could direct him to Wedd Durlacher. This was after lunch and the Englishman was old-fashioned. ‘You lot found your way to Pearl Harbor without any help from me. You can find your own fucking way to Wedd Durlacher.’

Although Bordelaise incivility was more sophisticated, it was as pointed. But the Japanese did everything right. They recruited first-rate French managers and vignerons. They invested ten times their purchase price in improvements and new techniques. It was 13 years before Lagrange made a profit.

Today, the château is worthy of its status. It has a somewhat Pauillac style and is not the equal of Léoville-Las Cases or Ducru-Beaucaillou, those outstanding St Juliens — but apart from first growths, what is? The château also produces Les Fiefs de Lagrange, a second wine, and Les Arums de Lagrange, a white Bordeaux. I have not sampled that, but reliable judges commend it.

I had the pleasure of a Fiefs the other day, at a lunch organised by Cassidy Dart of Pol Roger. As was only fitting, we started with a 2002 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, only recently on the market. It was fresh, taut and inspiring. In ten years’ time, the 150th anniversary of Churchill’s birth, it will still be full of vigour and style.