L'Epiphanie de Pauillac 2017

Ok everyone. This is our biggest Bordeaux coup of all time. And, it’s the sort of deal that took just seconds for our man on the ground, Jean-Marc Sauboua, to reply to: “Yes, I’ll take it.” He didn’t even know the details yet. But, as someone who went to school with all the top winemakers, trained at First Growth Château Haut-Brion and is a veteran of nearly 40 vintages, he knows a good deal when he hears it. And when to pounce.

Here’s what you need to know (and what we can say) …

First off, if you see Premier Cru (‘First Growth’) on a label, you’re in for a treat. Because out of the thousands of châteaux in Bordeaux, only four earned the status of First Growth in the historic Classification of 1855. (Mouton Rothschild was added in 1973.) That means those estates’ wines were considered the finest – and also the most expensive. The crazy thing is, it still holds true today.

Out of those five fabled châteaux, three are located in the prestigious village of Pauillac: Latour, Lafite, and Mouton Rothschild. And L’Épiphanie de Pauillac was made at one of them.

We just can’t tell you which. You see, the wine in this bottle is from the same vineyards (and the hand of the same winemaker) as the château’s $800+ Grand Vin that’s only sold to a favored few – imagine the uproar among their other customers if they knew you’d paid a fraction of the price. L’Épiphanie may not be the Grand Vin itself, but its credentials – and the “outstanding quality” of the 2017 vintage (critic James Suckling) – make it totally unmissable. Not just for Bordeaux fans, but for anyone who loves a great bottle of red.

We only had access to 500 cases – and all but a handful were claimed in our special presale earlier in the year. You will have to be fast to get your hands on some.