1998 Château Trotanoy

ChâteauTrotanoy is a 17.8-acre estate in the Pomerol appellation of Bordeaux. Like all the wines of Pomerol, it is unclassified. The name of the estate seems to come from the 18th century, when the family that owned it call it Trop Ennuie, which means “too much worry or work,” perhaps indicating that the vineyards were difficult to cultivate. The name changed to Trotanoy in the early 20th century when it became part of Jean-Pierre Moueix’s portfolio or wine estates. The Moueix family’s holding now include Lagrange and Petrus, along with Trotanoy and other right bank estates. The family also owns and operates Dominus in Napa. Trotanoy’s vineyards are planted to 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Robert M. Parker Jr. notes that “Trotanoy has historically been one of the great wines of the Pomerol and all of Bordeaux.”

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux’s red wine producing regions, with only about 2,000 acres of vineyards. Located on the east side of the Dordogne River, it is one of the so-called “right bank” appellations and therefore planted primarily to Merlot. Pomerol is unique in Bordeaux in that it is the only district never to have been rated in a classification system. Some historians think Pomerol’s location on the right bank made it unattractive to Bordeaux-based wine traders, who had plenty of wine from Medoc and Graves to export to England and northern Europe. Since ranking estates was essentially a marketing ploy to help brokers sell wine, ranking an area where they did little business held no interest for them. Pomerol didn’t get much attention from the international wine community until the 1960s, when Jean-Pierre Moueix, an entrepreneurial wine merchant, started buying some of Pomerol’s best estates and exporting the wines. Today the influential Moueix family owns Pomerol’s most famous estate, Château Pétrus, along with numerous other Pomerol estates. Pomerol wines, primarily Merlot blended with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, are considered softer and less tannic than left bank Bordeaux.