Petit Verdot, France: Almost all the Petit Verdot in France is planted on Bordeaux’s left bank (soils on the right bank are too heavy for it) as a 2-3% seasoning in a blend. ‘In the Médoc Petit Verdot is used in small amounts to give structure to the classic Bordeaux blend (eg. at Château Palmer and Château Labegorce-Zédé). Its late and often incomplete ripening–later than Cabernet Sauvignon–saw it marginalised. During the 1950s Château Léoville Las Cases and Château Lynch Bages showed that with up to 15% Petit Verdot, claret could be as immortal as it was complex. Château Labégorce Zédé’s oldest plot, planted originally in the 1920’s, produced a vat in the 1990 vintage with a beguiling aroma of violet and tar coupled with mouthfilling vinosity. Several hundred bottles of 100% Petit Verdot were bottled separately, and had the completeness to counter to the notion that all claret must always be a blend. Other left bank estates with noble Petit Verdot budwood include Château Latour, Château Léoville Château Léoville-Las Cases, Château Margaux and Château Tour de Mons,” (Monty Waldin., Bordeaux Unfiltered (unpublished manuscript, 1997).