2005 Château Belgrave

Château Belgrave is in the Haut-Medoc region of Bordeaux and is a Fifth Growth estate according to the 1855 classification. It was originally named Château Coutenceau, but was renamed in the 19th century by its English owner, who lived in the Belgravia district of London. The 135-acre estate is today owned by Dourthe, a large Bordeaux-based wine conglomerate. Since acquiring the estate in 1980, Dourthe has made improvements and brought in Michel Rolland, France’s most famous winemaking consultant. About 230,000 bottles are made annually. Château Belgrave is generally about 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. The second wine is Diane de Belgrave.

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.