A few times each year, we get to offer a wine that’s truly unparalleled, the sort of experience we spend our entire drinking lives hunting for, that bottle that lives up to every wine lover’s loftiest dreams. Today is just such a day. We present the 2001 Château Cantenac Brown Margaux–a legendary Classified Growth from perhaps Bordeaux’s most hallowed appellation, now, at almost a quarter-century of age, at its absolute drinking peak. Typically we have to invest hundreds of dollars and decades of patience just for the chance to enjoy a bottle like this, but today we get to skip the line and indulge in Bordeaux’s glorious heights straight away. A rumbling concoction of darkly serene fruit, heady tertiary spice, and deep, soul-stirring terroir tones, Bordeaux–heck, any wine anywhere–doesn’t get much better than this. Our special pricing is the best in the nation, and comparable to current releases, so the value on display here is just off the charts. Once this tranch is gone, though, that’s it; we’ll probably never see 2001 Cantenac Brown again. Act fast.

Even among the five heralded red wine appellations on Bordeaux’s Left Bank–all of them some of the most prized agricultural land in the world–Margaux stands out. Paulliac is more powerful, Saint-Estèphe more structured, but nothing soars like Margaux. Here, with especially poor gravel soils, the vines struggle mightily. In lesser examples of the appellation, the resulting wines are pretty but thin; in the hands of proprietors like Cantenac Brown, they achieve stunning aromatic heights other appellations can only dream of, while retaining the region’s famous long-lived structure. Cantenac Brown, located on the Cantenac-Margaux plateau, demonstrates this ably. Since the early 1800s, this estate has been a diverse ecosystem of vineyard and native woodland, and in 1855 the château achieved the status of Third Growth. It then flew under the radar for much of the 20th century. But in the late 1980s, José Sanfins–born in Portugal but raised among the vines of Bordeaux–joined Cantenac-Brown and reestablished its reputation. Now it’s widely regarded as one of the appellation’s leaders in both quality and sustainability, with a state of the art cellar made entirely from earth harvested on the property.

Sanfins’ skill shines especially in a year like 2001. There was never much hope for 2001 becoming a coveted collector’s vintage, as the hype around 2000 took years to subside, but it turned out to be a true Bordeaux lover’s dream. It was a cooler vintage marked more by earth than sun, and collectors needed to choose carefully if you were going to lay anything down for decades. But now, almost twenty-five years removed, we know that 2001 is a great vintage in its own right. A bottle of Cantenac-Brown reveals the vintage’s beauty, with its mix of heady perfume and fine-tuned structure. Most importantly, it’s peaking right now. 2000 Cantenac-Brown might be stealing the show in another ten years, but it’s the 2001 that’s outshining all else at the moment.

We strongly recommend decanting the 2001 Cantenac Brown Margaux to get it off the sediment and let it unfurl after resting so long in the bottle. After that, buckle up. The nose opens with a deep and thrumming mix of dried black and purple fruits like black raspberry, blackcurrant, and plum skin. There’s an incredible depth of spicy savor, from cedar to black peppercorn to tobacco, all of it underlain by granite, pencil lead, and turned earth. It’s hedonistic and poised at the same time, spellbindingly complex. On the palate it’s firmly medium-bodied, harkening back to the Bordeaux of yesteryear and continues the earthy, mushroomy savor. Lifted violet tones sneak in before the minutes-long granitic finish closes things out. Put simply, it’s an absolute showstopper, a bottle to pull out for life’s most celebratory moments. Cook up something simple and let the wine shine and you’ll be in for one of the best wine nights of your life. Grab whatever you can, because wine experiences this transcendent don’t come around often!