1975 Château Maucaillou, 3-bottle Lot

Château Maucaillou takes its name from the phrase “mauvais cailloux,” meaning bad stones, which is how the local farmers described the soil in the Middle Ages. Thin and filled with gravel, the soil was considered poor for growing grains. By the 16th century, however, the land had proven itself excellent for grape vines, and the Moulis vineyard of Château Maucaillou is documented as one of the oldest vineyards in the Médoc. The Dourthe family have been important wine merchants in Bordeaux since the mid-19th century, also acquiring wine estates starting in the early 20th century. They acquired Château Maucaillou in 1929 and have continually added property and improvements. Today the estate includes 157 acres and is still owned and operated by the Dourthe family, who also own the CVBG wine trading company. The flagship wine is Château Maucaillou, which Robert M. Parker Jr. has complimented for being “impeccably made in a rather robust, tannic, concentrated style but with a certain silkiness…”

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.