1982 Château Potensac

Château Potensac, in Ordonnac, is a Grand Cru Bourgeois of the Medoc. It is owned by the Delon family, which also owns Leoville-Las-Cases and Nenin. Jean-Hubert Delon manages the 126-acre estate, which is planted to 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. Wine writers and Bordeaux enthusiasts generally agree that Potensac’s wines are of classified growth quality. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that Potensac “produces wines so far above the level of quality found in this region of the Medoc that they are a tribute to the efforts of the Delons and the matire de chai, Michel Rolland.” The wines are noted for their rich quality and purity. Parker added, “this is such a high-quality wine that any serious Bordeaux enthusiast would be making a mistake if he or she did not try it.”

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.