43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot

Food pairings: Roast beef, lamb, duck, venison and game birds, mushroom dishes, and aged cheeses.

Winemaking: The 2018 harvest ran from September 19 to October 10. Plots ferment separately, partly in tulip-shaped concrete vats installed in 2015, with only a few light pump-overs, and the wine is moved by gravity. It aged for 19 months in barrels, 65% new. Philippe Delfaut has been general manager and winemaker since 2007, with Eric Boissenot consulting.

Vineyards and terroir: Kirwan's vines grow on the Cantenac plateau in up to five metres of Pyrenean gravel mixed with clay. The Moulin Robert plot is the highest point of the estate. The team has mapped 29 soil types to fine-tune the farming, and the estate has held HVE level 3 environmental certification since 2017.

Family: The estate was once called Domaine de Lassalle and takes its name from Mark Kirwan, from Galway. It was placed at the top of the Third Growths in 1855, and Camille Godard created its gardens. The Schÿler family has owned Kirwan since 1926, and Jean-Henri Schÿler led a major replanting in the 1960s.

In the pictures: An estate building at Château Kirwan with its blue shutters (photo: xlibber, CC BY 2.0), and the Kirwan barrel room (photo: davitydave, CC BY 2.0).