Chateau La Croix-de-Gay is the smallest of the Bordeaux vineyards yet its wines offer big robust flavors. The Croix-de-Gay name can lead to lively misinterpretations of experts’ tasting notes; look at this sample description of a 1997 bottle: “Garnet core with lucid pink rim. Faint chocolate notes on a slightly mean nose. Soft tannins with ripe plumy fruits on the palate.”

Among the Croix-de-Gay wines, Chateau Lafleur de Gay is particularly admired. A special luxury cuvée wine, it is made from hand-harvested Merlot grapes and aged in new oak barriques for 18 months. While it can be enjoyed young, it reaches its peak at between 5 – 10 years. Robert Parker has praised it highly in the Wine Advocate.

Chateau La Croix-de-Gay wines are sometimes to be had at very reasonable prices at Duke of Bourbon, which offers bottles and cases from private cellars.