2015 Chateau Prieure-Lichine Margaux 750 ml

Perennial favorite Château Prieuré-Lichine produced an absolute dream for Bordeaux collectors in the universally acclaimed 2015 vintage. This Left Bank showstopper is hands down the best '15 Margaux under $100, and will pay dividends far into the future. It's a must-have cellar stocker for anyone captivated by richly focused Cabernet-based wines.

The critics couldn't help themselves, raining down one superlative after another. Decanter raved that it's "clearly the best wine I have ever tasted from the property." Suckling hailed it as "superb Margaux." Antonio Galloni of Vinous said "All the elements simply fall into place." And the Wine Enthusiast called it "concentrated and dense while also elegant." All of these critics scored it either 96 or 95 points. 

Luminary winemaker Stéphane Derenoncourt led the way on this triumph. With a brand-new facility and an epic vintage, the stars aligned for one of the most extraordinary creative opportunities of his lifetime. "2015 was like a dream," he told James Suckling. A vintage that gave him everything and held nothing back, allowing him to "make the wine exactly in the way like you want."

Powerful but never overpowering, the wine's greatness boils down to a perfect balance: It's both ripe and fresh—a hallmark of exceptional Margaux—with a delicate sweetness and a haunting perfumed quality that gracefully evokes the Gironde's gravelly soils. 

The property has a long, storied history, dating back to Benedictine monks who made claret on the land into the 18th century. The house was divvied up during the French revolution and changed hands several times into the 1950s. Seminal wine writer Alexis Lichine, dubbed "the Pope of Wine" by admirers and detractors alike, bought the estate in 1951 and laid the groundwork for it to become the consistent powerhouse that it is today.

Derenoncourt has pushed the estate even further, meticulously plotting 120 distinct vineyard parcels over all five districts of the Margaux appellation. With a recent overhaul of the estate’s cellar, making room for greater precision, Derenoncourt and his team harvest and vinify each of the separate parcels on its own terms, lending Prieuré-Lichine a unique perspective into some of the greatest terroirs in all of wine. 

Over the past decade, the Prieuré-Lichine Margaux has gotten better at every turn. And yet the price has yet to rise with the elevation of the wine's quality. This is a rare opportunity to stock up on a truly extraordinary wine without shelling out tens of thousands of dollars. In other words, this one's a keeper.