The quintessential garagiste wine made from a 5-acre site, the 2005 Gracia is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. Stonemason Michel Gracia turns out 450 cases of wine that come close to duplicating Alain Vauthier’s Ausone. A powerful bouquet of crushed rocks, spring flowers, blackberries, blueberries, and a steely mineral character is followed by a massively endowed St.-Emilion with huge power and tannin as well as equally huge extract, intensity, and length. This brilliant wine is made without compromise and represents a future legend from this vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2035.

This estate is a tiny micro-treasure in St.-Emilion. Owned by Michel Gracia and consisting of less than five acres of vines, it turned out a final blend in 2005 of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, but only 5,000 bottles were produced. A wine pushing for perfection, notes of blueberry and blackberry dominate, but also underlying the fruit is a strong core of minerality and flowers. Full-bodied, rich, concentrated, and absolutely pure, this is a tour de force and a prodigious effort in this great, long-lived, slow-evolving vintage. Forget it or another 5-10 years and drink it over the following 40 or more.