1999 Chateau Tirecul-la-Graviere Cuvee Madame

Cuvée Madame is the ultra-rare, late-harvest prestige cuvée from Tirecul-la-Gravière, the most decorated estate in Monbazillac, Bergerac's answer to Sauternes.

Produced only in exceptional botrytis vintages, this 1999 is one of the most extraordinary sweet wines in France outside of Bordeaux. Now at 25 years, the wine has achieved extraordinary richness and complexity: candied apricot, orange peel confit, honey, saffron, vanilla, and a racy acidity that prevents any cloying quality. An unmissable rarity for lovers of great dessert wine.

Utterly sensational, the 1999 Cuvee Madame is another dessert wine from this estate that’s a match for anything in the world today. Coming from miniscule yields of roughly 12 hectoliters per hectare and aged 20-30 months in barrel, it offers a bouquet of honeyed tangerines, blood orange, crème caramel, and marmalade, huge richness, and a viscous, opulent texture, yet no sense of heaviness or weight due to its acidity and incredible purity. This is a serious, tour de force in dessert that I wish I could pour for every reader. Its only downside is its miniscule production. It will keep forever. Drink between 2004-2049. - 99 points Jeb Dunnuck