Château Margaux

Château Margaux, archaically La Mothe de Margaux, is a wine estate of Bordeaux wine, and was one of four wines to achieve Premier cru (first growth) status in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. Over several centuries it has retained its position as among the world's most prestigious and expensive wines. The estate is located in the commune of Margaux on the left bank of the Garonne estuary in the Médoc region, in the département of Gironde, and the wine is delimited to the AOC of Margaux.

The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, with a fortified castle known as Lamothe or La Mothe (from motte, a small rise in the land), and wine under names such as "Margou" and "Margous" was known in the 15th century, but it was with the arrival of the Lestonnac family in the 16th century that wine production became of particular importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac expanded the property and cleared many of the grain fields to make way for vines. In 1750, Mr de Fumel planted a large quantity of fine grape-variety. In 1802, it was brought by the Marquis de la Colonilla, who razed the old castle to the ground and built a new one.
The vineyard of Château Margaux covers about 100 hectares (250 acres) carefully cultivated. Find out more about Margaux wines on  Chateau_Margaux

Pétrus

Nowadays Pétrus is considered to be the most interesting of the Pomerols. Owned by the Arnaud family for the better part of 200 years until the end of the World War II, Pétrus was then sold to Mme Loubat, who had progressively acquired the property since 1925. Madame Loubat presented her bottles in England for HRH Princess Elizabeth and Philip, duke of Edinborough's wedding. Across the Atlantic, Pétrus became the special wine of the Kennedy's.

On her death in 1961, the estate was passed to her family, who eventually sold a half share in 1964 to Jean-Pierre Moueix. Moueix himself had set up a negociant business Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, based in Libourne and gradually began acquiring right bank châteaux.

Following the death of Jean-Pierre Moueix in 2003, his elder son Jean-François is the gérant of Château Pétrus, while, Christian Moueix, his second son, manages the production. At present a bottle of Pétrus sells at around 600 Euros.

There is no real château physically on the estate, which explains why the wine is usually simply referred to as Pétrus, and not Château Pétrus.

To learn more about  Petrus Wine

Le Romanée-Conti

The scarcest, most expensive - and frequently the best - wine in the world ... If you can lay your hands on a case - and that is a big 'if' - you would have to pay £5,000 or more for a young vintage, double or treble for a wine in its prime.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, is an estate in Burgundy, France that is widely considered among the world's greatest wine producers. It is also the world's most expensive.

The plot Romanée-Conti history started in 1232, when the Abbey of Saint Vivant in Vosne, acquired 1.8 hectares of vineyard. In 1631 it was bought by the de Croonembourg family, who renamed it Romanée for reasons unknown. In 1760, André de Croonembourg decided to sell the domaine and it became the subject of a bidding war between Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV of France, and her bitter enemy Louis François Ier de Bourbon, prince de Conti. The prince won, paying the massive sum of 8000 livres, and the vineyard became known as Romanée-Conti. But come the Revolution, the prince's land was seized and auctioned off.

The Romanée-Conti vineyard was bought by Nicolas Defer de la Nouerre, who in 1819 sold it to Julien Ouvrard for 78,000 francs. In 1869 it was bought by Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, who went on to build the domaine we know today with the acquisition of the holdings in Échezeaux, Grands Échezeaux and Richebourg. To learn more about history of this great wine visit Domaine_de_la_Roman-Conti