2010 Château Artigues Arnaud Pauillac 750 ml

One of our favorite wine secrets is how well affordable Bordeaux can age. While big-bucks bottlings often monopolize the press, a ten-year-old wine from a top-value producer is one of our favorite things to pull from the cellar.

Generally, that means buying and cellaring wallet-friendly wines ourselves—but we’ve tracked down a cache of 2010 Château Artigues Arnaud, a rich, textured Pauillac that’s prime for drinking right now, without the financial hit that usually accompanies this sort of bottle age.

Time has only made this Cabernet-based Bordeaux more affordable. Its $18 price tag would make it a steal as a current release, but we’ve managed a near-magic trick to offer this library gem at that same price. Even better, it’s from one of the best Bordeaux vintages ever—a year that Wine Spectator called “stellar” and rated 99 points, their highest score ever for a Left Bank year.

Château Artigues Arnaud is owned and produced by the team at Grand-Puy Ducasse, a Grand Cru Classé estate just down the road, and shares the same Pauillac DNA as its twice-as-expensive brother. Pauillac is the crown jewel of Bordeaux’s Cabernet-dominant Left Bank, home to Châteaux like Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, and Latour, all of which show off the typical style of dark-fruited, powerful wines.

The second we pulled the cork, our only question was how much we could get for our members. With a bright, purplish-ruby core and a hint of brick around the edge, it’s got the color of a classic Bordeaux just entering its prime. The nose is full of black currants, with Pauillac’s trademark pencil lead and cedar notes, plus a buttressing of dusty cacao. The palate is silky from age with a muscular personality that focuses on dark fruit, graphite, vanilla, and dried herbs. It practically begs for a roast chicken or a fine steak, but at this tariff, we wouldn’t feel the slightest twinge of guilt about opening one with a burger.

2010 was as near a perfect vintage as Pauillac has ever seen, meriting a 99-point score from Wine Spectator—their highest ever grade for a year—as well as 98-point marks from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and Vinous, who called the year “a modern classic.” It’s a vintage that excelled at both high-end and less heralded bottles, which Vinous praised as “wines of atypical ripeness and density.”

Unfortunately, Château Artigues Arnaud isn’t making any more of their 2010, so once our stock runs out, that’s all she wrote. Drink it, hold it, hold it while you drink it—whatever you do, make sure you have enough.