2007 Château Croix Mouton

Château Croix Mouton is a 30-acre Bordeaux Superior estate in Lugon. Since 1998 it has been owned and operated by Jean-Philippe Janoueix, who comes from a family of long-time Bordeaux negociants. Janoueix and his family own several estates in St.-Emilion, Pomerol and Fronsac. Before Janoueix purchased the estate, it was known as Château Mouton. But when Château Mouton Rothschild put pressure on Janoueix to change the name to avoid confusion with its wine, Janoueix changed it to Croix Mouton to reflect the fact that his family also owns La Croix St. George and La Croix, both in Pomerol. At Croix Mouton Janoueix makes a “garagiste” style 100% Merlot he calls 20 Mille, which refers to the 20,000 vines per 2.5 acre of vineyard. The flagship Château Croix Mouton sometimes includes a small amount of Cabernet Franc.

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.