You NEED this in your life. A high-scoring (95 Decanter!) described as “concentrated, mouth-filling, and plump”. With “bags of fruit extraction and ripeness”. A little known French red that drinks in a tier usually reserved for the Petrus and Mouton crowds.

Except those can set you back $100+ a bottle, easily. Yet this one? A much more gentile, hoi polloi type price.

That’s where your favorite Spies come in, reaching over and beyond the tried-and-true paths, venturing outside the classic and usually overpriced regions,. And sometimes just outside the box that is Bordeaux, you uncover hidden treasure. It’s the uranium nuclear reactor core every secret agency in the world is after, over which many spies lost a few fingers over, if not their lives.

We found one!

Here are the directions. From Bordeaux, hop in your Renault or Citroen, head Southwest on the A62 for maybe an hour depending on how you drive, and voila, you’re in Marmande, gateway to a wine country the Bordelais never want you to discover, the idyllic Côtes du Marmandais. The secret ingredient here is Abouriou, an indigenous grape variety that when you close your eyes will make you forget all those Cabs in one whiff, with one taste. Good old Merlot does play a supporting role in the blend though.

Vivid claret in the near opaque core, with a gradient towards a bright crimson rim. Dark cherry and plum are joined by sweet tobacco, cedar, licorice, and dried herb nuances make up the attractive nose. Silky, and nuanced, mocha and rose petal complicating the generous mid-weight palate. The finish is elegant and long, with borderline rustic tannins adding to the complexity and energy. While food-friendly for a wide variety of cuisines, traditional regional pairings include country pâtés, goose, duck, or rabbit dishes, and black truffles, Miam miam c’est bon!

At $50, it’s bound to scare off your Margaux or your Pomerol. With our INSANE massive break bringing it all the way down to a mere 26 bucks and change it makes the competition look like a fly in the rear-view mirror.

To put things into perspective, guess who else got 95 points from Decanter with their 2014s? Yup, Petrus, Mouton, and Haut-Brion. And you just don’t want to know what those names would set you back in comparison. Let’s just say that for what you’d pay for 1 bottle of the Petrus alone you can scoop up 130 bottles of this. Yeah, that’s almost a dozen cases.

Wait, there may not be that many left by now!

95 Points – Decanter

“Concentrated, mouth-filling and plump with deep, rich red fruits, layers of caramel, intriguing herbal notes and the lightest hint of brioche. Rich, ambitious and full bodied, with bags of fruit extraction and ripeness, enticing spices all framed with structured tannins. An exciting wine with ageing potential.”