Château Pape Clément· Pessac-Léognan

Few estates in Bordeaux can claim a pope as their first proprietor. Pape Clément takes its name from Bertrand de Goth, who held these Graves vineyards before his elevation to the papacy in 1305, making this one of the oldest continuously worked vineyards in the region, seven centuries before Bernard Magrez took the helm.

Magrez farms it with an intensity that borders on the obsessive, and the wines show it: a Pessac-Léognan of deep, smoky concentration, generously oaked, built to reward patience rather than impatience. The 2018 will run twenty-five years at minimum, and I would not open a bottle before its tenth birthday.

There is also a small white made here, a rarity worth seeking, though the reds are the reason most of my clients call. I keep the allocation modest and steer it toward those willing to cellar properly.