Chateau Laville Sauternes 2019 (Half Bottle 375mL)

Chateau Laville’s spectacular 2019 was the first ever Sauternes to win Best-in-Show in the entire history of Decanter’s prestigious World Wine Awards. 97 points, good people! Our UNDER $25 price is one fantastic deal not to be missed!

Chateau Laville is the family property of Jean-Christophe Barbe, set just south of Bordeaux proper in the village of Preignac. He just happens to be a distinguished Professor of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux, and I’ll give you three guesses about what his principal expertise is... Got your final answer? Well, if you said, “Noble Rot” (or botrytis, the beneficial fungus that makes Sauternes possible), you win! It can’t be a coincidence, can it?

With all of his expertise and hands-on experience on full display, this wine is breathtakingly sensational. At UNDER $25, we’re letting this go for a song! Honeyed apricots, allspice dram, butterscotch and orange liqueur, golden mango, and a lingering sweet smoke on the finish – this wine grabs you by the collar and pulls you face first into the glass. In a word...sublime!

Chateau Laville has 14 hectares in the commune of Sauternes-Preignac on gravel soils underpinned with limestone, and only the best plots are used to make this – the Grand Vin of Laville. Each harvest, they make four or five passes through the 45-year-old vines – ensuring that only the most botrytis-ravaged, noble-rotted grapes are selected. How they do it at this microscopic price when all their neighbors fall in the $70-$400 range is some kind of miraculous wonder, but we’ll gladly take every last one of these bottles we can get our hands on! The PRICE! Even at the original $45, this is a rippin’ steal, y’all. But 44% off!?!? Go.

PAIRING IDEAS: Don’t overthink this one – Korean pears, a nicely temped hunk of Point Reyes blue cheese, some roasted walnuts halves, and some crispy crackers. Bonus points if you can munch on this with a loved one, with a cushy blanket spread in front of the fireplace.