Part of Bernard Magrez’s 40-estate dream team, Chateau La Tour Carnet is both one of the largest and the oldest estates in Bordeaux. Ideally positioned on the Left Bank in Haut Medoc, it was no surprise that Magrez took a shine to the fine wine shrine and made it part of his portfolio in 1999.

Magrez is of course something of an oenological superstar with high profile friends. He has a wine pairing partnership at La Tour Carnet with Joel Rebouchon to provide gastronomic food on the premises and other endeavours include a winemaking joint venture with French actor Gerard Depardieu (not La Tour Carnet). As with all of Magrez’s chateaux, Michel Rolland consults. The estate is also a very comfortable hotel, and you can’t get much more glam. Upon reservation, you are asked if you require use of the helipad.

La Tour Carnet’s history can be traced back over 800 years, to when fighting between les Anglais and les French was at its peak during the 100 years’ war. Originally named Chateau St. Laurent, the estate was renamed after Proprietor Seigneur Jean de Foix’s manservant Carnet, who remained faithful to the English long after the war ended.

Michel de Montagne, a French philosopher and writer, was the castle’s next proprietor in the 17th century, however the aforementioned war severely damaged the castle, which would have been ruined had it not been for Charles de Luetkens, a Swedish businessman. Under his steerage, not only did de Luetkens restore the castle to its former glory, but he managed to obtain a fourth-growth classification for the wine in the 1855 Napoleonic table. Then the phylloxera crisis all but wiped out the vines and by the mid-20th century the fine wine estate was struggling. The 1962 sale to Louis Lipschitz set La Tour Carnet back on its road to redemption, however it would be Magrez who would see the literal fruits of his labour.

It is safe to say that the underperforming wine was given a new lease of life in the new millennium when Magrez stepped in. Magrez began renovations by turbocharging the existing vines, and adding almost 150-hectares from neighbouring vineyards. This brought La Tour Carnet into the elite 100-hectares plus club, alongside other fine wine behemoths such as Lafite Rotshchild, Lascombe, Yquem and Ducru-Beaucaillou. The additional vines also gave Chateau La Tour Carnet some terroir very close to some of the best St. Julien wines, a fact which is reflected in the taste.

Although we tend to refrain from mentioning second wines on Vindome.com, we cannot help but mention La Tour Carnet’s special cuvee called Servitude Volontaire. The production is tiny – just 500 cases and is sold exclusively through Magrez’s shops in Bordeaux and Paris. The wine has only been produced since 2004, but with such a small production scale, demand far outstrips supply. The high-scoring (90/100 on aggregate scores) wine’s availability is decreasing as time goes on, so savvy investors might want to add a case or two of this to their portfolios before it’s too late.