2016 Château Teyssier Les Asteries Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux

Put together a short list of Jeb Dunnuck’s top-scoring Saint Émilion Grand Crus from any given year and you know it’s going to be heavy on the icons. But in 2016, the winemaking iconoclast behind cult wine Le Dôme crashed the party with a little-known, tiny-production wine—one that costs a fraction of the luminaries on that list. 

With a 97+ point score, it placed ahead of Cheval Blanc (97 points), Angélus (97), and Canon (96)—all estates that are significantly more expensive than Les Asteries, running up to $950+ per bottle.

It’s bold to try and top the greatest producers in the village, but Jonathan Maltus was the guy to do it. Once described by Robert Parker as a “visionary, self-styled revolutionary,” Maltus arrived in Saint-Émilion in 1994. He introduced Le Dôme in 1996. Following the resounding critical acclaim—and feverish demand—it received, he launched a new single-vineyard wine in 2004: Les Astéries.

Maltus has always had a healthy contempt for convention. The success of Le Dôme showed the world that tiny-production, single-vineyard wines from great terroirs could match—and even best—the big names on the Right Bank.

Grown on 80-year-old vines in a vintage that Decanter rated an excellent 4.5/5, handpicked into small baskets, the 2016 wine from the tiny 1.2-hectare Les Astéries estate flaunts a densely concentrated core, fabulous complexity and minerality, and true Grand Cru Classé–level length and breed. 

Dunnuck lauded the wine’s “full-bodied richness and power, yet the balance and elegance of a ballerina” in his review. It’s a wine for true insiders to bring to the party and humble all the pricier bottles on the table. Maltus wouldn’t have it any other way.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 15.20%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2045
• 83% Merlot17% Cabernet Franc
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork