1982 Château L'Evangile, 3-bottle Lot

Château L’Evangile is in the commune of Pomerol on the right bank of the Gironde River. As a wine in the Pomerol appellation, it is not classified. L’Evangile dates to the mid-18th century, when a family from Libourne planted vineyards and called the estate Fazilleau. In the 19th century it was sold several times and renamed L’Evangile. In 1990 the estate, which now includes 40 acres, was acquired by Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite). Substantial renovation has occurred under the Barons de Rothschild. Vineyards are planted to 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet France. There is a second wine called Blason de L’Evangile.

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.