TOP 5 WINES

Yquem is a Premier Cru Supérieur wine from the Sauternes, Gironde region in the Graves, a southern area of the Bordeaux vineyards. It was the only wine to receive a premier cru supérieur rating under the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, which reflected its perceived superiority over all other wines of its type – and higher price.

Yquem's success is due largely to the site's greater susceptibility to attack by noble rot, or Botrytis cinerea. Wines from this château are typically complex, concentrated, and sweet, but this is balanced by their relatively high acidity. They are also legendary for their longevity. An Yquem from a good year, or vintage, will only begin revealing its true worth after a decade or two of cellaring. It will retain its drinking qualities for a century or more, with proper care; during this time, its fruity overtones will fade gradually, and merging into more complex secondary and tertiary flavors.

From time to time since 1959, Château d'Yquem also produces a dry white wine called Ygrec (French for the letter y), that contains equal proportions of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

The château itself came into the possession of Jacques de Sauvage in December 1593. De Sauvage acquired the tenancy of the property from the French monarchy by exchanging other holdings for the House of Yquem, as it was then known. The site has supported a vineyard since 1711 at least, when the estate was bought outright by Léon de Sauvage d'Yquem. In 1785 it passed to the Lur-Saluces family when Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage d'Yquem was wed to Comte Louis-Amédée de Lur-Saluces, a godson of Louis XV and of Victoire-Louise de France. Lur-Saluces died three years later, and his widow devoted herself to maintaining and improving the estate.

Thomas Jefferson visited the château when he was American ambassador to France, later writing, "This is the best white wine of France and the best of it is made by Monsieur de Lur-Saluces." After returning to the USA in 1789 Jefferson ordered thirty dozen bottles for George Washington and ten dozen bottles for himself. It should be noted, however, that at that time the technique of allowing noble rot to infect grapes had not yet been discovered, so the sweet wine Jefferson drank was different from Yquem today.

The 1811 Château d'Yquem, called a comet vintage for that year's Great Comet, has displayed what Robert Parker and other wine experts have called exceptional longevity. Parker accorded the wine a perfect 100 point score when it was tasted in 1996.

After the death of Marquis Bernard de Lur-Saluces in 1968 the château was operated by Comte Alexandre de Lur-Saluces, who held minority ownership (7 %). At the time annual production typically was about 66,000 bottles. After the 1973 oil crisis demand fel,l and prices plummeted. The price of a bottle of d'Yquem plunged to FF35 (about US$5); only in the 1980s did prices begin to recover.

A bitter family feud induced the Comte's brother Eugène de Lur-Saluces to sell part of his 47 % share of the business. On November 28 1996 the French luxury goods giant LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) acquired a 55 % share of Château d'Yquem from Alexandre's relatives for about US$100 million. After challenging the sale in court for over two years, the Comte was ultimately retained to manage the estate. Notorious for his dedication to quality, he would reject an entire batch of the wine if the results of a random taste test were not to his liking.

On 17 May 2004 the Comte retired, to be replaced by Pierre Lurton, the current managing director of Château Cheval Blanc also, In 2006 a 135-year vertical selection of Yquem (comprising each vintage from 1860 to 2003) was sold by The Antique Wine Company in London for US$1.5 million. In the same year, Dior and Château d'Yquem collaborated to create a skin-care product containing sap from the Yquem vines.

Château Pétrus is a Bordeaux wine estate situated in the appellation of Pomerol near its eastern border with Saint-Emilion. A relatively small estate, it also has a small production of only one wine: a red wine composed almost entirely of Merlot grapes, occasionally with small amounts of Cabernet Franc. The estate is the property of the family of Jean-Pierre Moueix, a wine merchant from Libourne.

Although the wines of Pomerol have never been classified, nevertheless Pétrus is generally agreed to be not only the best of the appellation, but also equal to the greatest of Bordeaux.

The estate was originally a 7-hectare (17-acre) vineyard owned by the Arnaud family since the mid-18th century. The name first appears in records dating back to 1837. In the 1868 Cocks & Féret edition, under the listing for Crus bourgeois et Premiers artisans Château Pétrus ranked just behind Vieux Château Certan and next to Château Trotanoy. Some vintages of that period were labeled Pétrus-Arnaud. At the Paris Exhibition of 1878 Pétrus was awarded a gold medal. This had tremendous consequences as the selling price was set at the level of a Médoc second growth: a first for a wine of Pomerol.

Early in the 20th century the Arnaud family established La Société Civile du Château Pétrus, offering stakes in the company to the public. The widow of Edmond Loubat, who owned the Hôtel Loubat in Libourne, began buying shares in the estate around 1925. She continued doing so until she became the sole owner of the domain in 1949.

According to David Peppercorn "the great age of Pétrus" began with the end of World War II and the successful 1945 vintage. Jean-Pierre Moueix acquired exclusive selling rights to Pétrus in that year, and the wine's international reputation began to grow. Mme Loubat (who also owned Château Latour) remained an active vigneronne, or winemaker, for life. She was known for her meticulous dedication to detail and quality and was unwavering in her belief that her wine deserved prices as high as those of the grands crus.

The partnership with Moueix prospered. Pétrus was brought to the USA, and it was served at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947. Mme Loubat presented a case to Buckingham Palace for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

After the l956 winter frosts that devastated the grape vines of Bordeaux and killed off two thirds of the Pétrus vines, Mme Loubat decided against replanting; new vines were successfully grated on surviving rootstocks, thus the vines' average age remained high. This established a tradition that has been retained to this day. From that period onwards Pétrus was no longer sold off in cask, but only in bottle.

Pétrus' fame spread throughout the USA in the 1960s: Henri Soulé, owner of Le Pavillon restaurant in New York, promoted the wine. According to Alexis Lichine, "Pétrus was served at Le Pavillon in the days when Onassis sat at a corner table. After that, Château Petrus became a status symbol, the sort of name dropped by people who wish to imply not only that they know wine but that they are in wine."

When Mme Loubat died in 1961 most of Château Pétrus went to a niece, Lily Lacoste-Loubat, and a nephew, Mr Lignac. A share went to Jean-Piere Moueix to hinder conflict between the heirs, and ensure Moueix' continued influence. The niece represented the estate briefly until 1964, when Jean-Pierre Moueix bought the Lignac shares and oenologist Jean-Claude Berrouet became permanently attached to Pétrus. In 1969 5 hectares (12 acres) of vineyard were purchased from neighbouring Château Gazin to augment the estate.

After Jean-Pierre Moueix died in 2003 his son Jean-François Moueix, head of Groupe Duclot, became the owner of Pétrus. He controls distribution within France while his younger brother Christian, in charge of Pétrus since 1970, supervises the vineyard, wine making, marketing, and foreign distribution together with his son Edouard. In 2007, when Berrouet retired after 44 vintages as technical director, he was replaced by Eric Murisasco. Berrouet's son Olivier Berrouet was appointed the new winemaker and is training to take over as technical director. Christian Moueix announced in 2008 that he intended to limit his role at Château Pétrus to that of a consultant. 

Château Lafite Rothschild is a wine estate that has been, owned by members of the Rothschild banking family of France since the 19th century. It is located in the renowned wine-producing village of Pauillac, in the Médoc region to the north-west of Bordeaux. The name Lafite is derived from the Gascon term la hite, meaning "small hill."

Under the 1855 Classification, which was based on recent prices, only four wine-producing châteaux in Bordeaux achieved First Growth status. Out of those four, the first one to appear on the list is Château Lafite Rothschild, a consistent producer of one of the world's most high-priced red wines.

In 1234 the estate was the property of Gombaud de Lafite. In the 17th century the Ségur family bought the property of Château Lafite, including the 16th-century manor house still standing. Around 1680 Jacques de Ségur planted much of the vineyard, although vines very probably had already been grown there before.

Early in the 18th century, Nicolas-Alexandre, Marquis de Ségur, greatly improved vinifying techniques on the estate and went on to present his wines to the upper echelons of European society. He soon became known as the Wine Prince, and the wine of Château Lafite was called The King's Wine thanks to the influence of Maréchal de Richelieu. Towards the end of the 18th century the reputation of Lafite was assured; even Thomas Jefferson paid a visit to the estate and became a lifelong client.

After the French Revolution, the period known as the Reign of Terror brought an end to the Ségur family's ownership of the estate. It became public property, and in 1797 the vineyards were sold to a group of Dutch merchants. During the first half of the 19th century Lafite remained in the hands of the Vanlerberghe family. The quality of the wine rose even further, yielding the superb vintages of 1795, 1798, and 1818. The Château was purchased for FF4.4 million on 8 August 1868 by Baron James Mayer Rothschild, and the estate became Château Lafite Rothschild. James, however, died only three months later, and the estate passed on to his three sons Alphonse, Gustave, and Edmond.

The château experienced periods of success and failure, facing post-phylloxera vines and two world wars in the course of the 20th century. During the Second World War German forces occupied the Château and heavily plundered its cellars. Lafite has been managed by Eric de Rothschild since he succeeded his uncle Élie de Rothschild in 1974.

Lafite attained record prices at the Sotheby's Hong Kong wine auction on 29 October 2010. Three bottles of the 1869 vintage sold for an all time high of HK$1.8 million, or USD 232,000 each. A bottle of the 1870 vintage that was sold to an Asian telephone bidder sold for HK$1.3 million. Becauase these wines had come directly from the cellars of Domaines Baron de Rothschild, they are considered to have what is called "perfect provenance." The 2008 vintage recently led to a worldwide price increase of over 125 % within 6 months from its release, which raised some Asian countries to the very top of the list of worldwide markets where investment-grade wine is purchased.

Château Margaux, originally La Mothe de Margaux, is a Bordeaux wine estate. It was one of only four wines to achieve Premier cru status under the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The estate is located in the commune of Margaux, in the Médoc region in the department of Gironde, and the wine bears the Margaux AOC. The property also produces a second wine, Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux, and a dry white wine named Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux. The latter does not conform to the Margaux appellation restrictions.

The site has been occupied at least since the 12th century. A fortified castle known as Lamothe or La Mothe (from French motte, a small rise or hillock) stood there, and wine were recorded in the 15th century under names such as Margou and Margous; but only after the Lestonnac family arrived in the 16th century did wine production take on special importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac added to the property and cleared most of the grain fields to make room for vine cultivation.

Over time the property would be handed down in a relatively direct line from the Lestonnacs on the female side. Proprietors' names changed, and in 1654 an alliance of marriage with the Pontac family of Château Haut-Brion would play a crucial role in the inclusion of Château Margaux among the four first growths.

By the 18th century the estate covered 2.65 km² (650 acres) of which a third was devoted to viticulture. The layout of the site has not changed significantly since then. As was the case for many of the châteaux in the Médoc, during the early 18th century the wine progressed from a pale, watery beverage that faded within a few years, to the dark, complex liquid that has been stored in cellars ever since. The transformation was largely the ccomplishment of an estate manager named Berlon, who revolutionised vinifying techniques with his novel ideas, such as banning early morning picking to avoid dilution of the wine by dew-covered grapes, and recognized the significance of differing soil quality in the various terroirs of the estate.

In 1771 it was a wine from this estate that became the first claret (former English name for Bordeaux wines) ever to be sold at Christie's, and when Thomas Jefferson visited Bordeaux in 1787, he noted that Château Margaux was one of the "four vineyards of first quality."

After the French Revolution the estate's owner Elie du Barry was guillotined and the estate expropriated, eventually becoming the property of a certain Miqueau who left the property to decay. It was briefly rescued by Laure de Fumel, but she was soon obliged to sell, and in 1802 the estate was purchased by Bertrand Douat, Marquis de la Colonilla, for FF654,000. Douat commissioned one of Bordeaux' foremost architects, Guy-Louis Combes to erect buildings in the First Empire style. The old château was demolished and completely rebuilt, and the Marquis moved into his new abode in 1812. The property was sold in 1836 to a Spanish nobleman, Alexandre Aguada, Marqués de la Marismas, for FF1,350,000. Most of the building's décor and fittings date back to this period. The Marqués' son sold the estate to Vicomte Pillet-Will in 1879, and in 1920 it was sold to a syndicate that was initially headed by broker Pierre Moreau.

Considerable shares in the estate were bought in 1925 by Bordeaux wine merchant Fernand Ginestet (owner of the adjacent Château Lascombes at the time), gradually increasing so his son Pierre could take complete ownership in 1949. In 1965 Pierre declared a new and controversial estate policy: the year of vintage would only be affixed to great vintages, while wines of lesser years would be sold as non-vintage wine – as is the custom for Champagne.

After the economic crisis in Bordeaux of 1973 the Ginestet family was forced to sell off the Château. An attempt by National Distillers & Chemical Corporation to acquire Château Margaux was vetoed by the French government: the estate was a national treasure and must not be sold into foreign ownership.

In 1976 French grocery and finance group Félix Potin, headed by André Mentzelopoulos from Greece, achieved a successful acquisition for about FF 72 million, or US$ 16 million. Mentzelopoulos brought about a renaissance, restoring the neglected vineyard, the chais, and mansion, with assistance from oenologist Émile Peynaud. When Mentzelopoulos died in 1980, Château Margaux was generally considered to have been largely restored to its former substance and reputation, with the 1978 and 1979 vintages earning the description "exceptional."

Early in the 1990s an exchange of shares was negotiated with the Agnelli family. However, management was left in the hands of Mentzelopoulos' daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos. In 2003, Corinne Mentzelopoulos was able to buy back the majority stake and she became the owner and sole shareholder of Château Margaux.

Château Cheval Blanc is a wine maker in Saint-Émilion in the Bordeaux wine region. Its wine is one of only two to receive the highest rank of Premier Grand Cru Classé (A) status in the 1955 Classification of Saint-Émilion wine, the other being Château Ausone.

The estate's second wine is named Le Petit Cheval (French for little horse; the estate's name itself means white horse).

In 1832 Château Figeac sold 0.15 km² (37 acres) to a certain Laussac-Fourcaud including part of the narrow gravel ridge that runs through Figeac and the neighboring vineyards to reach Château Pétrus just over the border in Pomerol. This compact area became Château Cheval Blanc: the wine which, at the International London and Paris Exhibitions in 1862 and 1867, won medals that still figure prominently on its labels. The château remained in the family until 1998, when it was sold to Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods group LVMH, and Belgian businessman Albert Frère; Pierre Lurton was estate manager, a similar arrangement to that prevailing at the group's other chief property Château d'Yquem.

The vineyard is considered to have three qualities inherent to its location and its grapes: one third Pomerol, as it is located on the boundary; one third Graves, as the soil is gravelly; and the remaining third is typically Saint-Émilion. The vineyard area has grown to cover 0.41 km², of which 0.37 km² are planted with an unusual composition of grape varieties of 57% Cabernet Franc, 40% Merlot, and small plots of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.

On 16 November 2010, an imperial bottle (6 liters) of 1947 Château Cheval-Blanc set a world record for the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine, at US$304,375. The bottle was sold to an anonymous buyer at a Christie's auction held in Geneva.