La Louvière Pessac-Léognan 1999

The post-war years offered little hope to Bordeaux. Social and political problems aside, it was the climate that threatened to bring the region to the brink of ruin. The legendary ’61 notwithstanding, a string of miserable vintages in the 1960s drove growers from the land and saw properties abandoned and vineyards left to rot.

André Lurton seized his opportunity. “Château La Louvière had no roof and there was four inches of water in the hard dirt basement – it was love at first sight.” Purchasing the Haut-Bailley-adjacent estate in 1965, Lurton worked tirelessly to restore the property and its vineyards to their former splendour and the wines to stand equal to the Graves cru classés.

La Louvière’s Cabernet-dominant flagship usually needs a few years to settle down before its core of dusty red and black fruit takes on exactly the sort of earthy, tobacco-y scents that we can’t resist. An unfairly unheralded year that was overshadowed by the starry quality of the 2000 vintage, take it from us Rotters that the '99 is everything you'd want from mature, restrained, classic Claret.