2000 Château Grand Pontet, 12-bottle Lot

Château Grand-Pontet is a 35-acre estate in St.-Emilion. It is a Grand Cru Classe of the St.-Emilion appellation. Since the 1980s it has been owned by the Pourquet-Becot family. Vineyards are planted to 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The second label is Dauphin de Grand-Pontet. About 50,000 bottles of the flagship wine are produced annually. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that “this excellent wine has merited grand cru classe status since 1988. It has continued to improve, benefiting from the winemaking skills of the Becot brothers…”

Saint-Émilion is on the east side of the Dordogne River. At 13,400 acres it is one of Bordeaux’s largest appellations, and perhaps its most picturesque. It is also home to what has been called “the garagiste” movement of upstart, tradition-defying winemakers who produce artisanal wines in styles that are unconventional for the appellation. The village of Saint-Émilion dates from the middle ages and it sits on low hills, surrounded by ancient walls. Like its neighbor Pomerol, Saint-Émilion was not included in the famous Bordeaux classification system of 1855. But a century later a ranking system was put in place, and unlike the classification system for the Medoc, the Saint-Émilion system is reviewed every ten years, meaning that estates can be upgraded or downgraded. There are three rankings: Grand Cru Classé, Premier Grand Cru Classé B and Premier Grand Cru Classé A, with the final ranking being the best. Such legendary Saint-Émilion estates as Châteaux Ausone and Cheval-Blanc are Premier Grand Cru Classé A, along with Châteaux Pavie and Angélus, both added to the classification in 2012. Wines in this appellation are primarily Merlot, mixed with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.