2022 Chateau Valandraud Saint-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux 750mL

<Pre-arrival, arriving July 2026> In 1991, a former bank clerk with no vineyard and no pedigree made a hundred cases of wine in a garage in Saint-Émilion. The Bordeaux establishment sneered and coined a term to put him in his place: "garage wine." Jean-Luc Thunevin wore it like a badge. By 1995, Robert Parker scored his tiny Château Valandraud higher than Pétrus; prices blew past the First Growths; and the same gatekeepers who mocked him eventually inducted Valandraud into Saint-Émilion's elite as a Premier Grand Cru Classé. The 2022 is Thunevin's greatest to date. Jeb Dunnuck scored it a perfect 100, ranking it with the "otherworldly" 2010 and 2020, while Suckling, Galloni, the Wine Advocate, and Jane Anson piled on with a wall of mid-to-high-90s. From a vintage critics are calling a new benchmark for Bordeaux, it's 85% Merlot and two years in new oak — full-bodied, deep, and massive, yet so light on its feet it carries all that richness with no weight at all. Across 42 U.S. retailers, some charging up to $256, ours is the lowest in the country at $150 — a perfect-scoring Premier Grand Cru for far less than the top shops charge. The garage rebel beat the First Growths on quality decades ago. Now we beat them on price, too.