One might expect the three Leoville siblings - Leoville-Poyferre, Leoville-Las Cases and Leoville-Barton - to make broadly similar wines. After all, they are neighbouring estates, all in St Julien, all classified as second growths in 1855, and all once part of the very same estate, Leoville, until debt and Napoleonic-era turbulence sundered them. But with different owners and winemakers at each, they can produce radically different wines.

The commune of St Julien may have no first-growths, but it is well served by seconds and fourths (Margaux rules the thirds). Perhaps the most high profile of all St Juliens is `super second` Leoville Barton, consistently producing brilliant, structured wine that barely falls short of the first growths, and for a fraction of the money.

The Leoville plateau has long been recognised as one of the best spots in Bordeaux for producing long-lived, complex, powerful wines. Once upon a time, it was a unitary estate, for a while owned by the Marquis de Las Cases. Then came the revolution, and the estate was seized, and split into three parts, later identified as Las Cases, Barton and Poyferre. Las Cases has the heart of the old estate, the Grand Clos, which sits on gravel soils up to ten metres deep.

Ormes is elms, Pez is the village in St-Estephe where the chateau is located; the elms of Pez. Jane Anson is effusive in her praise; ‘this has become one of the best value and most consistent estates in the whole of Bordeaux, hitting it out of the park from at least the 2014 vintage onwards’. It’s an historical property, reaching back to the sixteenth century; Jean-Charles Cazes bought it in 1940, and it has been in the hands of the Cazes family ever since, benefitting hugely from the overflow of expertise and experience from the family who also own and run the great Lynch-Bages.

Among a certain generation Chateau Lynch-Bages used to be known affectionately as `lunch bags` on the grounds that it was cheap enough to go in one`s lunch bag. Sadly, it is no longer that cheap. (Your lunch bag may vary). But this Fifth Growth is a member of the elite club of Super Seconds, those chateaux that capture how out-of-date some aspects of the 1855 classification has become. It is also quintessential Pauillac, with a high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon and all the gravel, smoke, cedar and cassis one expects in an absolutely classic left-bank Claret.

At Leognan property Malartic-Lagraviere you are some distance from the Garonne, yet there are boats on the label of the wine. These honour a former owner, Count Hippolyte Maures de Malartic, an Admiral and a former governor of Mauritius. After the Maures de Malartic family, a hundred or so years with the Ricard family (who also owned de Fieuzal and Domaine de Chevalier) and a brief stint with Laurent-Perrier Champagne, since 1997 Malartic-Lagraviere has been owned and managed by the affable, very committed Bonnie family.

The history of chateau Margaux is as fascinating as any in the Medoc, but the second half of the 20th century is the key. For over two decades the Ginestet wine merchant family had the place, but presided over a severe decline - eventually they fell and were forced to sell. The run of dreadful 1970s vintages finally did for them. Andre Mentzelopoulos bought it in 1977, after it had been on the market for two years.

Before there were vines on the slope that now marks the vineyards of Montrose, there was heather. And at the right time of year, the hillside turned pink with heather flowers. Hence, Montrose – ‘mont rose’, ‘the pink slope’. Vines did not arrive here till the early 19th century, which makes Montrose one of the youngest classed growths. Yet it is also one of the best. It is often thought of as the first growth of St-Estephe, and frequently vies for the title of wine of the vintage.

Tasting en primeur, Mouton-Rothschild invariably seems to be opulent, rich, flambuoyant, the anitithesis of the other Rothschild First Growth, severe, austere Lafite. Mouton is one of the very few properties to be in the hands of the same family now as it was at the time of the 1855 classification (only Leoville and Langoa Barton enjoy that same historical continuity). Mouton took shape from the inheritance of Nicolas-Alexandre de Segur, who in his time had owned and created many of Bordeaux’s greatest estates. In 1720, one Joseph de Brane bought Mouton, and rechristened it Brane Mouton.

It is ‘a star in the appellation,’ according to Jane Anson, which would ‘make it into a new version of the 1855 classification if one ever came around’. Neal Martin calls it ‘quintessentially Saint-Estephe’. Quality is soaring at Phelan-Segur, and that is reflected in the scores it has been achieving. The terroir has always been good; the largest and best vineyard plot is adjacent to Montrose, although there is another excellent and significant section alongside Calon-Segur. While ownership changed in 2017, the steady hand of Director Veronique Dausse remained on the tiller.

Pichon Lalande is easily one of the greatest wines of the Medoc, frequently vying with and sometimes exceeding the first growths in quality. It has its roots in the Pichon estate, which was split in 1850 into the two parts thereafter known as Pichon Baron and Pichon Lalande. From 1978 until 2007, Pichon Lalande was owned and managed by the redoubtable May Eliane de Lencquesaing. A powerful ambassador for Bordeaux worldwide, she oversaw many great vintages, the expansion of the vineyard and the rising profile of Pichon Lalande.

What is now Pichon Baron originally formed part of the same estate as Pichon Lalande. In 1850, on his deathbed, Baron Joseph de Pichon Longueville split his estate into two. 20 hectares went to his two sons, and were thereafter known as Pichon Baron, and 30 hectares went to his three daughters, and thereafter became Pichon (Comtesse de) Lalande.