1997 L'Évangile

This chateau is on a hot streak, having produced one of the handful of top Pomerols virtually every year since the late '80s. Under the direction of Jean-Luc Marchive, L'Evangile took a full month to harvest in '97, carefully controlled the temperature of fermentation (those who overextracted their merlots got a vegetal note, says Marchive), and has produced a charming wine to drink after six or seven years. Only the old vines went into the grand vin, which represents a strict 45% selection. The press wine, says Marchive, was declassified into the generic wine; it was not even good enough for the estate second wine. Incidentally, Marchive, who is always candid about his own wines, still ranks the '94 slightly ahead of the '95. It's more complex, he maintains, while the '95 is a bit more difficult to understand and atypically powerful for this property.