Chateau Labegorce Margaux

The story of Labégorce begins with a large estate in the north of the Margaux commune belonging to the Gorce family, perhaps as far back as the fourteenth century. They were merchants who climbed steadily into the Bordeaux aristocracy and still held the property in the eighteenth century, when records show vines dotted between fields of wheat and grazing cattle. Like so many Bordeaux estates it was broken up and sold after the Revolution, giving rise to three properties: Château Labégorce itself, Labégorce-Zédé, named for Pierre Zédé who bought it in 1840, and L'Abbé Gorsse de Gorsse, long since out of viticulture. The Perrodo family has owned Labégorce since 1989 and has reunited the Labégorce-Zédé vines with it; Fabien Raymond makes the wine.

Seventy hectares are farmed, bordering directly onto the vineyards of Château Margaux, all within the Margaux commune. The plantings run 50 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 45 per cent Merlot, 3 per cent Cabernet Franc and 2 per cent Petit Verdot, at the high density of 10,000 vines to the hectare. Farming is lutte raisonnée, the French equivalent of integrated pest management.

Fruit is picked and sorted by hand, given a short cold maceration and then fermented under temperature control in large concrete vats. Malolactic fermentation and fifteen months of ageing take place in barrel, up to 40 per cent of it new, and the wine is fined with egg whites before bottling. The style is pure and focused rather than showy, with real density behind it. Production is around 22,000 dozen.