2001 Château Clarke

Château Clarke is a 135-acre Cru Bourgeois estate in Listrac, in the Medoc. It was established in the 12th century when Cistercian monks at a nearby abbey planted vineyards. It was later purchased by an Irish man named Tobie Clarke and in 1973 it was acquired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who had the estate entirely replanted and renovated. The estate is planted to 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. About 250,000 bottles are produced annually. The estate also makes rose and white wine. Robert M. Parker Jr. notes that “Clarke has had a very successful early decade of the 21st century and has emerged as one of the best estates in Listrac. The wines are dark, rich and concentrated…”

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.