2017 Chateau Croix de Labrie Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 750 ml

“Wow.” James Suckling seemed at a loss for words when he tasted this “complex and exotic” 2017 Château Croix de Labrie, which he went on to award an impressive 96 points. 

Strolling the vineyard with proprietors Axelle and Pierre Courdurié last year, we suffered from the opposite affliction—we couldn’t stop gushing. We geeked out on the tiny estate’s thrilling soils and 100-year-old vines, until the normally loquacious Pierre finally laughed, cut us off, and summed it up perfectly: “Yes,” he said, “we have f*****g good terroir.” 

Axelle paused, tapping the 2017 vintage on the bottle before adding, "yeah, plus we lucked out!" At the best price—the only price—in the country, so did we. 

This bold, opaque purple 2017 Croix de Labrie is a beacon of its prime Saint-Émilion terroir (which immediately abuts Château Pavie). A Grand Cru Bordeaux whose reputation is growing faster than perhaps any other on the entire Right Bank, James Suckling praised its “Great result for a hand-crafted wine” in his 96-point review, while Jeb Dunnuck called the 2017 Croix de Labrie “stunning stuff” and “another killer wine from this tiny, family-run estate that readers should snatch up.”

A brief decant yields a charming mélange of blackberry, wild plum, five-spice, vanilla bean, mocha, and toasty aromas. Densely packed and finely woven, the palate balances a pleasant grip of tannins with bold, expressive notes of blueberry, cocoa powder, cedar, and earth. Equal parts accessible and serious, this classic Saint-Emilion will continue to develop further complexity over the next two decades. 

This is a pre-arrival offer that will ship in early September.

Walking around the tiny five-acre estate, it became immediately clear why Robert M. Parker Jr. himself has said that Croix de Labrie is “always one of the sexiest wines from Bordeaux,” producing “one of the most decadently hedonistic and luxuriously fruity wines. It also possesses undeniable complexity, texture, and class.”

With an ideal exposure right on the Saint-Émilion plateau, just east of Troplong Mondot and Pavie, the biodynamically-farmed land under our feet shifted from chalk-laced clay in one block to iron in another. 

That meticulously-farmed terroir shines through with each swirl and every sip. The vineyard sits on a hillock of sand and limestone soils cut with bands of iron, complete with giant fossils strewn through what was once an ancient seabed. The free-draining porousness provides real depth and density to the finished wine—the 2017’s terroir-driven structure echoes that of its $450+ Pavie next door neighbor. Mature vines range from 45 to 100 years of age, and high-density planting provides small berries, contributing to this wine’s impressive structure. 

Guided from grape to glass by world-renowned winemaker Michel Rolland, Croix de Labrie combines its terroir-first mentality with absolute expertise in the cellar—though barrels are stacked in the Courduriés’ living room on occasion, making it a true Saint-Émilion garagiste. The wine is fermented plot by plot in small barrels, a technique favored by Rolland for better oak integration, softer tannins, and rounder, richer flavors. It is then matured for 18 months in 100% new French barriques.  

The wine especially benefited from that exquisite pedigree in 2017, a great vintage for estates like Croix de Labrie, which turned an early spring frost into an opportunity to produce exceptionally concentrated reds. “2017 produced a number of tremendous wines,” according to Vinous’s Antonio Galloni in his vintage report, noting that “a number of 2017s on the Right Bank are positively thrilling.”

While some of the estate’s neighbors lost a huge percentage of their crop to frost, Croix de Labrie was saved by the spectacular rolling slopes of their terroir. Frost tends to avoid the most prized vines on the hill, which means that while less wine was made in 2017, the only grapes that went into it were of supreme quality. Which is why we love nothing more than an underrated vintage like 2017, where those in the know are handsomely rewarded with some of the best that Bordeaux has to offer. 

Poised for a gorgeous evolution in the cellar, the 2017 Croix de Labrie already makes an impressive centerpiece to enjoy right now. As soon as we tasted it back in the château, we made an offer for as much as they could spare. We don’t expect it to last here for very long, though: Grands Crus this mesmerizing never stick around once word gets out that we have the online exclusive.