2016 Chateau Rauzan Gassies L'Orme de Rauzan-Gassies Haut-Médoc Bordeaux 750 ml

Three summers ago, the 115 judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards sat down to tackle the enormous task of evaluating over 16,000 entries. After they rated and ranked every bottle, only three Bordeaux were named Best in Show. 

A $170 Pauillac you can’t find in the US was one of them. So was the 2016 Château Rauzan-Gassies L'Orme de Rauzan-Gassies Haut-Médoc.

Showing off an excellent vintage plus the winemaking expertise and attention to detail that have made Second Growth Rauzan-Gassies a cherished Left Bank estate, this bottle is a 97-point triumph. The judges called it a wine of “innate depth and tenacity” that suggests its “serious vineyard origins.”

The Quié family purchased Château Rauzan-Gassies in 1946, and though the estate is located in Margaux, L’Orme comes from a vineyard farther north, in the village of Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne. The Quiés have owned this exceptional gravel-laden plot on the banks of the Gironde even longer than they’ve owned Rauzan-Gassies, and their expert team recognized it as a site that met their exceptionally high standards. 

Unlike many of its Left Bank peers, L’Orme is based on satiny Merlot, while Cabernet Sauvignon adds depth, tannins, and refreshing acidity. The 2016 vintage, ranking with Bordeaux’s best of the last few decades and one Wine Enthusiast touted for bringing “quality across the Bordeaux hierarchy,” blessed L’Orme’s vineyard. A wet spring, which yielded to a hot, dry summer that hung on until September rains refreshed the vines, resulted in ripe wines with a deft balance of power, racy acidity, and aromatic complexity.

The expertly crafted 2016 L’Orme brings home the beauty of that vintage with multilayered, black-fruited authority.