Château Bel-Air Lagrave, Cru Bourgeois

One of our favorite phrases in wine has to be “decades-old Bordeaux with flawless provenance” because emerging with one of these pristine artifacts is akin to discovering a long-lost treasure and tasting one is a deeply stimulating experience like no other. Accordingly, we struck liquid gold upon finding a few old, cellar-direct bottlings from Château Bel-Air Lagrave last year, with the high point being a two-hour sellout of 1985 magnums. At the time, we counted it as our shrewdest direct import to date because it was a large-format paragon of properly mature, traditionally crafted Left Bank Bordeaux. That’s why we’re elated to reveal our newest batch of 1985s, except this time they’re in 750ml formats, and they cost just $50! The price-to-quality here is mindblowing: This parcel evolved for 35 years without any sunlight, movement, or fluctuation in temperature, and the château went the extra mile by reconditioning, recorking, and refilling each bottle (with the same wine) to ensure it