1995 Château Poujeaux, 12-bottle Lot, Wood Case

Château Poujeaux is a 136-acre estate in Moulis-en-Medoc. It is one of the oldest estates in the Moulis appellation dating to the 16th century. For much of the 20th century it was owned by the Theil family but in 2008 Philippe Cuvelier and his son Matthieu purchased it. The Cuveliers already owned Château Clos Fourtet in Saint-Emilion. The estate is planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with small amounts of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. About 350,000 bottles of the flagship wine are produced annually. The second wine is Château La Salle de Poujeaux. Since the Cuveliers have taken over the estate there is also third wine, Haut de Poujeaux from the Haut Medoc.

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.