54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot

Food pairings: Roast beef, rack of lamb with morels, venison, duck and game, roast chicken, and aged Gouda or Cheddar.

Winemaking: The 2022 was picked from September 12 to 29 after a very hot, dry summer that the estate's old vines withstood well. Its Merlots rank among the best ever made here. Each plot is vinified separately in the gravity-fed cellar designed by architect Arnaud Boulain and opened in 2016, with gentle extraction. The wine aged for 18 months in barrels, 70% new.

Vineyards and terroir: The vineyard sits close to the Gironde, which tempers extremes of temperature. At its heart are two plateaus of deep, Pleistocene Garonne gravel, lean and well-drained pebbles and sand that push the vines' roots deep. The vines average 38 years old and are planted densely. The rest of the estate is meadow grazed by Limousin cattle, and woodland.

Family: Bishop François de Foix-Candale built the estate in 1565. Its name comes from the Gascon "Bécha vela", lower the sails, because ships passing on the estuary lowered their sails in salute to the Duke of Épernon. Classified in 1855, Beychevelle has been owned jointly by Japan's Suntory and France's Castel group since 2011, with Philippe Blanc as director.

In the pictures: The façade of Château Beychevelle (photo: PA, 2014, CC BY-SA 4.0), and an 1838 lithograph of the château by Charles Lallemand (CC0).