60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon

Food pairings: Roast lamb or beef, fine cuts of steak, game such as wood pigeon and venison, and a wide range of well-flavored cheeses.

Winemaking: Created in the 1960s, Connétable Talbot is one of the Médoc's first second wines. It comes from younger vines but gets the same care as the grand vin. The 2020 was hand-harvested between September 11 and October 1, sorted by hand and optically, fermented in stainless steel and aged 15 months in oak barrels, 15% new.

Vineyards and terroir: Château Talbot, a Fourth Growth of Saint-Julien in the 1855 Classification, farms about 111 hectares in a single block near the Gironde estuary. The vines grow on rises of alluvial gravel carried from the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, planted at 7,700 vines per hectare, Médoc double-Guyot pruned and traditionally plowed.

Family: The estate is named for Connétable John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and governor of Guyenne, who was defeated at the Battle of Castillon in 1453. Désiré Cordier bought it in 1918. Today Nancy Bignon-Cordier, her husband Jean-Paul and their children carry on, with Jean-Michel Laporte as general manager since 2018.

In the pictures: Château Talbot in the 1860s, photographed for the album Grands Crus Bordelais when the Marquis d'Aux owned it (photo: Rijksmuseum, public domain). The château on an early-1900s postcard (photo: Marcel Delboy, public domain).