Chateau Latour
The tower at Château Latour
(Image credit: Benjamin Zingg, Wikipedia)

How good are 'third' wines from Bordeaux châteaux?

Dominic Haig, Brighton, UK asks:

I understand some Bordeaux châteaux are producing third and even fourth wines. How easy are these to find and how good are they in terms of quality and value?

Jane Anson replies:

Yes, an increasing number of top châteaux are producing third wines, such as:

  • Le Pauillac de Château Latour
  • Margaux du Château Margaux
  • Le St-Estèphe de Montrose

Fourth wines are less common, because even to produce the third wine an additional selection process must happen; the remains of this will usually end up being sold as bulk to négociants for branded wines.

Third wines tend to be made from the property’s youngest vines, and are in many ways an inevitable side-effect of the drive towards more quality, and higher prices, for the first and second wines.

They are also a reminder than many of these iconic Left Bank classified châteaux have bought extra plots of land over the past decade, which don’t yet make high enough quality wine to be included in the grand vin.

Third wines are quite easy to find, because they are meant to extend the brand into more affordable areas, although distribution tends to focus on just one or two importers per country.

You might also find them by the glass in restaurants.

Third wines of the crus classés have merit, but I feel there’s more interest in the first wines of Médoc cru bourgeois, which are similarly priced but will be putting their very best grapes into the bottle.

Jane Anson is Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent and a contributing editor.

This question first appeared in the April 2018 issue of Decanter magazine, subscribe to Decanter here.

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Jane Anson
Jane Anson

Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

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