In 1855 Pierre-Frédéric Lacoste gave the château its definitive appearance. Today the Borie family has restored it to its former splendor.
The château's classic French architecture combines pale Bordeaux limestone with the intense gray of its slate roofing. Instead of the tile commonly used for buildings of lesser character, the Lacoste family chose the noblest of materials, slate from the area around Tours. The façade is restrained, almost austere, but an elegant and stylish asymmetry is introduced on the right by a single square tower whose roof displays a Renaissance influence. This tower contains the chapel, where the latest generation of Borie children were baptized.
Archives and architectural details show that a building was first constructed here in 1737. The present château was built in 1855 by Pierre-Fréderic Lacoste, who inherited the domain in 1844. He and his descendants lived at the property until 1920, when the Lacoste family had to sell the estate. In the 1930s the new owner preferred to live in Bordeaux, and the château began its period of decline.
When François-Xavier Borie and his wife Marie-Hélène arrived in 1979 much needed to be done. Of the vineyard's original 55 hectares only 30 remained, the château was in poor condition and the winemaking buildings required renovation. Major investments were quickly made: in 1979 a new vat house with temperature-controlled tanks was built, and just four years later Grand-Puy-Lacoste achieved its first great success with the 1982 vintage, whose perfection symbolized the property's rebirth.
During this period François-Xavier Borie also restored the vineyard by replacing vines where necessary, improving the drainage system, instituting new methods of canopy management, etc. Further investments renewed the estate's buildings: the vinification cellar was renovated in 1995 and a new barrel cellar was created in 2003. In 2006 other improvements were made, such as installing a vibrating table equipped with the latest technology for sorting harvested grapes. In 2008, air conditioning was installed throughout the buildings.
Thus over more than 30 years the winemaking facilities have been progressively transformed with the goal of achieving higher levels of quality and increased consistency in the expression of the noble vineyards. Today Grand-Puy-Lacoste meets François-Xavier Borie's exacting standards, yet he FXB and his team continually work to build on their experience and go even further in their search for perfection.
