Ausone is perched at the top of a limestone cliff on the eastern flank of St-Emilion, and with only 7 hectares of vineyards, rarity as much as its exquisite reputation contribute to the astronomical price the wine can command. Nobody knows for certain if what is now Ausone was once the site of the villa of the Roman poet Ausonius, who spent his youth and his retirement locally. From time to time, Roman pottery turns up in the vineyard, and the foundations of a Roman Villa have been discovered at the foot of the slope.

From the same stable as St-Estephe stablemate Calon-Segur, with the same management and winemaking team, Capbern has always been a bit of a wine trade insider secret. Prior to 2013, it was called Capbern-Gasqueton (the double barrel referencing the two important families in its story) but that was clipped back to Capbern under new management. Both Calon-Segur and Capbern were under the control of the Capbern-Gasqueton family by the late 1900s, and stayed there throughout the 20th century.

Chateau Angelus has the unique distinction of having occupied every rung of the St-Emilion classification at one point or another in its history. In 2012, the Chateau celebrated its promotion to the very top tier, Premier Grand Cru Classe A, with a black bottle embossed with 21-carat gold-imprinted script. But ten years later, in 2022, it announced that it had decided to keep company with Ausone and Cheval Blanc in abandoning the classification altogether. Was it no longer exclusive enough? The chateaux concerned voiced complaints about the selection criteria.

Angludet is many people’s touchstone Margaux, unforced and perfumed. It is a former Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, though the Sichel family who own it no longer choose to present it to the Cru Bourgeois classification. The chateau is set in a bucolic stretch of south-west Margaux, 3 kilometres inland from the river. It owes its roots to a 12th century knight, Bertrand of Angludet, who build his house here. Vines were probably first planted in the 17th century. It looked like that was finally over after the great frost of 1956, when the extreme winter cold killed most of the vines.

Right next door to Mouton, Fifth Growth Armailhac has a little more sand in its soils, which means if it is a little less powerful than the majestic neighbour, it is also refined and finely textured – and usually ready to drink earlier. It tends to offer excellent Pauillac typicity, in a lighter style. Armailhac has been part of the Mouton stable since Baron Philippe de Rothschild bought it in 1933. Since then, it has gone through more than a few name changes.

Quintessential Pauillac. For many people, Batailley is their touchstone Bordeaux property, offering textbook lead pencil shavings, blackcurrant and cassis, tobacco, and a gravelly minerality. That gravelly note should be no surprise. The Batailley plateau sits on extremely deep gravel beds. The plateau and the chateau are both named for a battle that took place here in 1452, towards the end of the Hundred Years’ War. English troops, who had been holed up at nearby Latour, crossed the plateau on their retreat only to be routed by French soldiers. Relations are much friendlier these days.

Beau-Sejour Becot has had a good last 2000 years. It was the Romans who first started cultivating vines at this spot on the limestone plateau of St-Emilion – the modern estate has cut Roman stone to prove it. In the Middle Ages, the monks of St. Martin’s Abbey in St-Emilion carried on doing the same. After the Revolution, the land moved into private hands and the estate formed here was christened Beau-Sejour. A hundred years or so later, an inheritance saw it split it two. One half became what is now Chateau Beausejour-Duffau-Lagarosse.

Let us not obsess over the position of the sails on the sailing boats as they passed this Chateau on their way to or from the local ports. The label shows the gryphon-fronted longboat that has apparently had the Chinese market in a ferment and more significantly, history records nearly a century and a half of underperformance. Things began to look up in the late 20th century. The mid-eighties saw an extremely important change of ownership as GMF. the French civil servants pension fund, gradually bought the estate before bringing in Suntory as a 40% partner in the business.

It all began in 2006, when the Asseily family were captivated by the charm of then-neglected Chateau Biac. They call themselves ‘accidental’ winemakers. You might say their decision to throw over their lives and go to Bordeaux to make wine was impulsive. But the amount of work they have put in, the seriousness which they have undertaken it, and the sheer gusto with which they have thrown themselves up a forbiddingly steep learning curve are a wonder to behold. And all this work and all the learning are bearing fruit in the soaring quality of the wines.

Branaire-Ducru was born in 1680. Prior to that, it had been part of the much larger Beychevelle estate. That estate was broken up to settle debts, and several smaller estates emerged. One was acquired by a Jean-Baptiste Braneyre, who gave his surname to it, but it would take another 200 years before a subsequent owner appended his own surname ‘Ducru’. By the early 20th century, this was a neglected, run-down property. Corporate investors stepped in after World War II; in 1988, a whole new era began when Patrick Maroteaux bought Branaire and invested time, money and energy improving it.

There are three `Cantenacs` in the commune of Margaux, although `Brane` is more renowned than either Boyd or Brown. Brane-Cantenac lies to the west of the village of Cantenac, while the first half of its name comes from its early 19th century owner, the Baron de Brane, the nobility not being shy about having geography named after them. The good baron certainly chose an excellent property to append his name to, as the chateau possesses some extremely high quality vineyards, and was achieved Second Growth status in 1855. The Lurton family arrived here in 1925.

‘I make my wine at Lafite and Latour, but my heart is in Calon.’ The legend is that the Marquis de Segur, who owned all three of these properties, uttered these words in the eighteenth century and inspired the heart-shaped logo on bottles of Calon-Segur ever after. The good Marquis gave Calon-Segur half its name, but the other half had been around for quite some time. The estate was recorded as being in the hands of one Monseigneur de Calon, Bishop of Poitiers, in 1157. In other words, Calon-Segur, by the standards of the Medoc and St-Estephe in particular, is ancient.

Situated on a choice bit of the St-Emilion plateau with a poor, thin, clay topsoil and fossil rich limestone motherlode, this challenging terroir is the birthplace of St-Emilion’s top performers. Canon is a classy, high-wire act. The vineyard is planted 70/30 Merlot/Cabernet Franc, and 10 per cent is on the cotes off the plateau. John Kolasa (ex of Chateau Latour) began the reinvention of Canon when he was appointed by the new owners, the Wertheimer brothers of Chanel.

This fifth growth is one of the very few classed growths from outside the four classic communes of the Medoc. In fact, it barely made it into the 1855 classification at all. The redoubtable then owner Caroline de Villeneuve was incensed to discover that the brokers and negociants she had trusted to manage Cantemerle had neglected to see it included in the classification. She marched down to the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce armed with 40 years’ worth of receipts and commercial documents to prove the prices it was fetching (that being the basic criterion for inclusion).

There has been no more striking Bordeaux success story over the last decade than the soaring profile of Carmes Haut-Brion. Carmes is a small property on superb terroir within the Bordeaux city limits, near Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. It was owned by Carmelite friars (hence ‘Carmes’) until the French revolution. For the next 230 years it passed quietly through various branches of the Chantecailles-Furt family, until the modern era arrived dramatically in 2011 when it was acquired by real estate investor Patrice Pichet.