2009 Château Belle-Vue

Château Belle-Vue is one of three Médoc estates owned by the Mulliez family. Vincent Mulliez was a vigneron and former London Banker who died in his 40s in 2010, leaving the estate to his wife and sons. The 37-acre estate grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Jancis Robinson has noted that the estate’s wines are “classy, underpriced …. strictly for those who admire the style and longevity of classic red Bordeaux.” The estate’s wine typically has one of the region’s highest proportions of Petit Verdot in i’s blend.

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.