1985 Château La Tour-Blanche (Medoc)

Château La Tour Blanche is a First Growth estate of the Sauternes appellation of Bordeaux. The 91-acre estate traces its roots to the 18th century, when it was established by Monsieur de Latour Blanche. In the early 19th century it was acquired by Frederic Focke, who began making Sauternes. Today the vineyards are planted to 83% Semillon, 12% Sauvignon and 5% Muscadelle and the estate is owned by the French Ministry of Agriculture. The estate was bequeathed to the state by the last private owner, Daniel Iffla, who died in 1907 and wanted his estate turned into a wine school. Robert M. Parker Jr. notes that “La Tour Blanche is now one of the superstars of the appellation.”

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.