2018 Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere St.-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux 750 ml

If you want to stock your cellar with an age-worthy Right Bank superstar from one of the top vintages of the past decade, you can’t do better than the 2018 Château Canon-la-Gaffelière.

We’ve been inundated by requests for another vintage of Canon-la-Gaffelière ever since our members dispatched the 2015 in short order—and this 2018 stands as one of the best bottles ever off the estate. Vinous called it “dynamite” in their 97-point review, which put it within striking distance of Le Pin and Cheval Blanc ($4700 and $994) and MATCHED Classé A estates Pavie and Angélus, which will cost you $500 easy. 

Count Stephan von Neipperg is among the Right Bank’s most fascinating and charismatic characters. With his ascots, double-breasted blazers, and aristocratic moniker, he’s certainly at home in a family whose winemaking history dates back to the 13th century. 

Of the six châteaux the Count owns, the most famous is St.-Émilion’s Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Canon-la-Gaffelière. A stone’s throw from the legendary Château Ausone, these 48 acres at the foot of a slope are composed of complex sandy, clay, and limestone soils that have produced brilliant wines since the 1600s..

It was here that in the early 1980s, von Neipperg began putting his forward-thinking ideas into practice, instituting green harvesting, cutting out chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and returning to the principles of organic cultivation in the vineyards. He hired the self-taught flying winemaker Stéphane Derenoncourt, renowned for his work at Château Pavie Macquin and Clos Fourtet, and within years, the château had established itself at the forefront of the appellation.