1995 Chateau Bel Air Lagrave Bordeaux 750ml

After the blockbuster 1989 and 1990 vintages of this wine, we did our best to track down more of this underpriced superstar mature Bordeaux. Coming from a top vintage, this 1995 has aged incredibly gracefully - still benefitting from an hour or two in a decanter! Now close to fully mature, this is a wine of layers. Like a wine kaleidoscope, it constantly evolves in the glass. red berry pie, cedar, leather, cigar tobacco, baking spices, and a streak of limestone minerality all dance up from the glass in an interplay between intellectual quality that mature Bordeaux exhibits, and the hedonistic fruit that comes to the forefront after the bottle sees a few hours of air. The vineyard was planted to 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot and the wine sees about 50% new oak for 18-20 months. Drink now through 2030

The 1995 Chateau Bel-Air Lagrave comes from a village in Bordeaux with rich gravel soils called Moulis that sits directly Northeast of Margaux - the same village as Classe Spleen and Poujeaux. Owned by the Seguin-Bacquey family for over 150 years, this estate decided to close when the current generation of family members had no interest in the wine business - but not before reconditioning and selling their historical reserve bottles for substantially under market value. This means that the wine is in perfect condition, no crumbly corks or off bottles which is often the problem with even the best mature bottles. 1995 was an exceptional year for Bordeaux, quite ripe and rich, these wines have the ability to age decades longer than normal vintages.