1988 Chateau Roc de Cambes

This is the first vintage François Mitjavile ever made at Roc de Cambes, the exact moment one of Bordeaux's great second acts began. In 1987, the man behind Saint-Émilion's most legendary cult wine, Tertre Rôteboeuf, went hunting for a second vineyard. He didn't buy next door. He crossed to the forgotten Côtes de Bourg, plunged his hand into the cold clay-limestone of an ancient amphitheater above the Gironde, and bought the estate on the spot. "I felt like a fish in water," he said.

He brought the heretic's playbook that made him famous: late picking for extreme ripeness, fanatical vineyard work, no selection, no second wine, every old vine in the bottle. And he proved a humble appellation could make wine that critics compare to Pomerol, silencing anyone who laughed at the address.

The 1988 is the foundation stone, and the vintage suits it: a classic, structured Bordeaux year giving firm backbone to his naturally decadent style. Nearly four decades on, that youthful grip has melted into silk, dried cherry, fig, sweet tobacco, and his signature café-crème warmth.

Early-era Mitjavile almost never surfaces. Grab yours while you can!