To sample just one of Château Margaux's great vintages — the sweet tannins and voluptuous fruit of a 1990, say, or the big, rich spiciness of a 1983 — is to savor winemaking at its most refined. To take home 18 of them is an oenophile's dream. And here's your chance. Starting with Château Margaux, London merchant the Antique Wine Company is offering limited-edition collections of the finest vintages from each of Bordeaux's eight most illustrious châteaux.
What's more, the carefully crafted wines come with storage to match: architectural cabinets by British furniture designers Linley, each one topped with a scale model of the château behind the vintages. The handmade sycamore replica of Château Margaux — a perfect mock-up of the producer's 19th century mansion — houses three bottles, while, underneath, the cabinet's five drawers cradle a further 15 vintages, from the fresh 1961 to the powerful and complex 1995. The cabinets even have secret compartments: hidden beneath the steps to the model mansion is a space for your corkscrew.
The Antique Wine Company plans to sell collections from the other seven châteaux — Lafite to Haut-Brion, Latour to Mouton Rothschild — over the next three years. That'll give you time to save up; the Château Margaux collections cost $390,000 each. It may be "God who decides what the vintage will be like," according to Château Margaux owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos. But it's the precision of great winemakers that makes these collections worth every penny. www.antique-wine.com