2009 Chateau Poujeaux Moulis En Medoc 750 ml

2009 Château Poujeaux: Robert Parker’s “Finest Wine in 33 Years”

Never in Bordeaux history had a single vintage so ignited world markets before 2009. Chinese speculators arrived in force to the en primeur tasting a few months after harvest. The late, great Denis Dubourdieu stepped to the microphone in front of an audience of 300 wine professionals and recited the five elements of a perfect growing season, before concluding that 2009 was 5 for 5.

Robert Parker piled on with a vintage report entitled “Once Upon a Time — 1899, 1929, 1949, 1959, 2009,” where The Wine Advocate favorably compared 2009 to four of the greatest vintages in history. The markets went wild. Prices soared, scaring off most American importers, all in the throes of the Great Recession. For the first time ever, nearly every bottle of the 2009 First Growths was ticketed for Beijing and Shanghai!

During our most recent visit to Bordeaux, we were treated like royalty. But surely the most unforgettable afternoon of the trip was spent on the patio of Restaurant Le Saint-James with our hosts and a magnum of the staggering 2009 Château Poujeaux.

In their first full vintage after acquiring Poujeaux, the Cuvelier family — owners of Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé Clos Fourtet — crafted the most extraordinary wine ever to come off these gravelly soils above Moulis. Deep, dark, almost Napa-like in concentration and opulence, Vinous called 2009 “a great vintage for Poujeaux” and tacked on 92 points.

With a matching 92-point score, Robert Parker went even further. It’s worth reading the extra note Parker tacked on after his tasting note for the 2009 Château Poujeaux:

"The finest wine I have tasted from Poujeaux over the last 33 years, the 2009 is the second vintage under the ownership of the Cuvelier family, who made the absolutely monumental 2009 Clos Fourtet. This large vineyard of over 100 acres has always had a relatively lofty reputation for the best wine of Moulis. The consultants on the 2009 were Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt, and they have produced a blockbuster Poujeaux that certainly qualifies as one of the sleepers of the vintage it is a wine to seek out, as it is reasonably priced."

Matching 92-point scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and Vinous. $54.99 per bottle — somehow, in this crazy market, under the price of run-of-the-mill Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Thanks to Mathieu Cuvelier, 800 more bottles of Parker’s “sleeper of the vintage” — each drawn directly from the cellars in Moulis. Shipping included on 4.