2018 Chateau Haut Selve Graves 750 ml

Stéphane Derenoncourt has delivered three different Bordeaux estates into Wine Spectator’s Top 10, and his fingerprints are all over the 2018 Château Haut Selve Graves. 

Raised on a historic terroir by the legendary Derenoncourt, this is everything we want in a bottle of Bordeaux. It’s regal, aromatic, and ageworthy, and it brings to mind our favorite Left Bank overachievers, many of which wear the prestigious Grand Cru Classé label. Add to that the fact that it’s drinking beautifully, and it makes for a wine that MICHELIN-loved New York restaurants like Amélie and The Simone are all over.

The story of Château Haut Selve shows the power of determination. The vineyard was ravaged by phylloxera in the 19th century and it lay abandoned for over 120 years, until brothers Denis and Arnaud Lesgourgue bought it in 1993 and promptly set about building a Bordeaux powerhouse. Operating with the motto Non Nova Sed Nove (“With the Present, Make and Build for the Future”), the Lesgourgues invested in reviving the vineyard and rebuilt the château into an enviable modern winery. 

Derenoncourt has captured the estate’s success and the stellar 2018 season in this bottle. Grown in what both Wine Spectator and Vinous scored a 96-point vintage, the ‘18 consists of 60% Merlot, which provides rich fruit and velvety tannins, and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, which brings cassis and graphite aromas along with the gravelly minerality that defines the wine.

In the cellar, Derenoncourt gives this wine a lengthy three-week maceration for maximal extraction of flavor, and ages it in 33% new French oak. The result is an elegant wine from a rising estate, and we’re proud to have it.