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Bordeaux Producers
Name: Bordeaux
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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.
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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.
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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 But this Fifth Growth is a member of the elite club of Super Seconds, those chateaux that capture how out-of-date some aspects of the 1855 classification has become.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.
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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.
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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.
