Finding value in the Médoc plus 12 top wines to seek out

Drive the D2 route 35 miles north of Bordeaux through the Médoc region, and you pass the stone gateposts, seas of vines and noble buildings of the Left Bank’s most celebrated châteaux.

In the Margaux appellation, a colonnade of trees leads to Palladian-style Château Margaux. Further north in St-Julien, waving flags fly atop Château Ducru-Beaucaillou.

A domed stone pigeon house amid the vines signals Château Latour in Pauillac, while Château Lafite Rothschild appears just before the road curves towards St-Estèphe and the pagoda-like turrets of Château Cos d’Estournel.

Famous estates give the Médoc’s four most important appellations their reputation for great wines sold at astronomical prices. But lurking in the same postcodes are less well- known properties whose wines cost less than they should, based on their quality.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Elin McCoy’s top-value Médoc wines

For those estates, prices and reputation haven’t caught up with recent improvements brought about by a new owner with plenty of cash, a dynamic wine consultant, or a shift to organic viticulture.

Others languished because the wines were only available in one or two markets and not much was tasted until recently. And at some once-sleepy châteaux, a new, more ambitious generation has just taken the helm.

All of them offer undervalued wines for savvy buyers willing to look beyond the big names.

Margaux

This large, diverse and sprawling southern Médoc appellation boasts first to fifth growths, crus bourgeois and unclassified estates. Many churned out mediocre wines from the 1960s to the 1990s; only in the past two decades has Margaux become a hotbed of rising stars.

Châteaux Palmer, Rauzan-Ségla, Brane-Cantenac and d’Issan are at the top of their game, with d’Issan the best buy.

Others are on the cusp, like pink-stuccoed, unclassified Château Siran, long owned by the Bordelais Miailhe family. Yes, convicted counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan used Siran 1955 in fake first growth wines, but the château’s reputation began climbing after the current young generation’s Edouard Miailhe returned from Manila to take over in 2007 and start renovating. Since the 2015 vintage, the wines have become deeper and more luscious, and Miailhe has boosted wider awareness with an innovative tourism programme.

Also in my sights are Château Labégorce and third growth Marquis d’Alesme. Once run-down properties, they’ve been revamped since 2010 by the billionaire Perrodo family. Oil magnate Hubert Perrodo bought Labégorce in 1989, reunited the original parts of the estate, and snapped up Marquis d’Alesme in 2006 before being killed in a skiing accident.

But this sad story has a happy wine ending. At age 24, his daughter Nathalie took charge, hiring an all-woman team, including talented managing director Marjolaine de Coninck, to realise her father’s dreams. At Labégorce, replanting continues, and a new winery debuted in 2019.

Marquis d’Alesme’s stunning new cellar, in the centre of the village of Margaux, opened in 2015, along with a tasting bar and lovely garden to visit. Quality jumped with the 2015 vintage; however, prices haven’t risen that much. As de Coninck explains: ‘We need to be conscious of what price consumers are ready to pay for the wine. That takes time.’

In 2020, the family bought Château La Tour de Mons, which will eventually become another good-value pick.

St-Julien

Smaller than the other appellations, St-Julien has no first growths and 11 crus classés, from second to fourth growths.

Classified châteaux own 90% of the land. Maybe that’s why quality here is more consistent overall. Second growth stars Ducru-Beaucaillou, Gruaud Larose, Léoville Barton, Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Poyferré all shine brightly, and their second wines, as well as those from other châteaux they own, offer exceptional value.

One example shows why: the team at Ducru, including renowned consultant Eric Boissenot, also lavish their expertise on unclassified Château Lalande-Borie (renamed Le Petit Ducru), and La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, a terroir-focused cuvée that stands on its own.

Created in 2005 from a specific plot of Ducru’s vineyard, it sports a label designed by Jade Jagger and has some of the same dense, velvety character as the estate’s grand vin at less than a third of the price.

Two other overperforming estates are unclassified Château Gloria and fourth growth Château Saint-Pierre, both owned by the Triaud family under the umbrella of Domaines Henri Martin. Many Americans first read the underdog tale of how Henri Martin built Gloria by cobbling together parcels of vines from classified estates, created a gorgeous wine and cleverly promoted it in an article by a well- known novelist in The New York Times in the 1970s. Now the wine is no longer undiscovered and it’s better than ever, but still sells for very reasonable prices. If the 1855 classification were revamped, Gloria would surely be added.

Saint-Pierre’s under-the-radar status is partly down to the fact that it’s the smallest, least famous cru classé in St-Julien and partly down to its fractured history. The Martin family painstakingly pieced it back together in the 1980s.

In the past decade, both wines have become more confident and impressive. In 2016, a top-to- bottom renovation of the cellar where they’re made gave quality an extra push. Gloria upped its rich fruit and charm, while Saint-Pierre now delivers plump, cool fruit with chocolatey tones.

Pauillac

Home to three famous first growths – Châteaux Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild and Latour – this is the Médoc’s most illustrious appellation.

You could be forgiven for assuming it’s not the place to seek undervalued bargains. But guess again. Among the 12 fifth growths, which count Lynch-Bages, Pontet-Canet and Grand-Puy-Lacoste as super successes, are some neglected estates whose wines are becoming classics.

My first pick is Château Pédesclaux. Despite neighbours such as Pontet-Canet and Mouton Rothschild, its wines long suffered from a poor reputation for good reason. Before being sold in 2009 to real estate magnate (and owner of a popular Paris rugby team) Jacky Lorenzetti, the property had been through 40-odd owners, many of whom weren’t exactly dedicated to quality. The wines were barely known, sold through only one UK retailer. Its château was nondescript, located on a potholed street near an auto-repair shop.

Its transformation has been a revitalisation on a grand scale through plenty of money, a top winemaking team and astute management. Adding new vineyard land with great terroir and giving more spice and personality to the blend with Petit Verdot has given the wines much more polish from the 2015 vintage on. As has shifting to organic viticulture, plot-by-plot picking and a gravity-fed winery with dozens of vats so that batches can be kept separate.

An equally impressive overachiever is Château Clerc Milon, purchased by Mouton Rothschild in 1970 for a reported paltry one million francs. Baron Philippe reconstituted the vineyard and increased the amount of new oak. Eventually his daughter, Baroness Philippine, reinvented the estate with an elegant new cellar in 2011 and installed the brilliant winemaker Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy (who has now taken over at Mouton).

Interestingly, Carmenère grapes form a tiny part of the blend. A second wine, Pastourelle, was unveiled in 2016, starting with the 2009 vintage, and a vertical tasting then revealed how much the grand vin had improved. But the first vintage that stunned me was the powerful, smooth, seamless 2016 – a tour de force at a price below rivals such as Château Lynch-Bages.

St-Estèphe

This remote appellation north of Pauillac, with no first growths and fewer crus classés than any other commune, used to feel like the middle of nowhere, and the wines – fiercely tannic, concentrated and often rustic – took decades before you could drink them.

But climate change, precision viticulture and up-to-date winemaking have meant grapes ripen more readily, and tamed tannins. New owners are streaming in, making St-Estèphe prime territory for quickly rising reputations. The two second growths, Châteaux Montrose and Cos d’Estournel, are aiming for first growth quality with ever-increasing prices, while third growth Calon Ségur, under new ownership since 2012, is turning out stunners that are a comparative bargain.

My first rising star is canary-yellow Château Lafon-Rochet, the lone fourth growth and the first estate on the Left Bank to woo legendary Jean-Claude Berrouet (formerly at Petrus) as a consultant. With no chemical pesticides or herbicides in the vineyards and two new cellars, the wines now have more personality, finesse and balance, frequently outscoring famous names.

But the most thrilling value is among crus bourgeois and unclassified châteaux, many owned by more prestigious properties. Château Capbern, for example, has the same owner as Calon Ségur. Long known for offering terrific value, the wine now has more purity, definition and finer structure after a serious programme of renovation and more Merlot in the blend.

Similarly, Château Lilian Ladouys (recently named a cru bourgeois exceptionnel) benefits from the same team and owner as Pauillac’s Pédesclaux; investment, expertise and organic viticulture have resulted in more opulent, lush and spicy wines. In 2018, the family purchased additional vineyards with top gravelly soils, so expect even better wines in the future.

There are many more names to look for, such as Château Phélan Ségur, whose character, complexity and consistency resembles that of a fifth growth, while Château Meyney is often mistaken in blind tastings for Montrose.

The moral of the story: Bordeaux wines are better than ever and offer some of the best value around – if you know where to look.

McCoy’s dozen: top-value Médoc wines

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