At Château Lascombes during Bordeaux en primeur week in April 2023, Master Sommelier Carlton McCoy Jr (MS) and I were sitting on a saggy, slightly dingy sofa in a reception room.
‘This couch will have to go,’ he says, laughing, but his frown told me replacing it was already on a list.
He’s the detail-minded, ambitious 38-year-old managing partner of Lawrence Wine Estates, founded five years ago by American billionaire Gaylon Lawrence Jr, who is now a major player in the US wine world.
In 2022, the pair acquired their first Bordeaux property: Château Lascombes in Margaux, a second growth in the 1855 Classification.
