2000 Château Reignac, 3-bottle Lot

Château Reignac is in the Entre-Deux-Mers appellation. It is in the area between the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers. The château was built in the 16th century, then remodeled in the 18th and 19th centuries. Of note on the estate is a greenhouse built by Gustave Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel Tower. Château Reignac was purchased by Yves Vatelot in 1990 and significant improvements have been made since then. Classified as a Bordeaux Superieur, the estate makes Merlot-based wines and a white wine. Robert M. Parker Jr. has noted that “Reignac is the standard bearer for what can be achieved by a passionate proprietor who cuts yields to a minimum, and does everything right in the cellar. Reignac is the leading candidate for the finest generic Bordeaux produced year in and year out.”

Bordeaux is the world’s most famous fine-wine producing region. Even non-wine drinkers recognize the names of Bordeaux’s celebrated wines, such as Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild. Located near the Atlantic coast in southwest France, the region takes its name from the seaport city of Bordeaux, a wine trading center with an outstanding site on the Garonne River and easy access to the Atlantic. Like most French wine regions, Bordeaux’s first vineyards were planted by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago, then tended by medieval monks. Aristocrats and nobility later owned the region’s best estates and today estates are owned by everyone from non-French business conglomerates to families who have been proprietors for generations. Bordeaux has nearly 280,000 acres of vineyards, 57 appellations and 10,000 wine-producing châteaux. Bordeaux is bifurcated by the Gironde Estuary into so-called “right bank” and “left bank” appellations. Bordeaux’s red wines are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It also makes white wines of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. There are several classification systems in Bordeaux. All are attempts to rank the estates based on the historic quality of the wines.