This is a name you will not find on any current list. Curé-Bon-la-Madeleine was a five-hectare property on the Saint-Émilion limestone plateau, ringed by Canon, Belair and Ausone. In 2000 it was bought by the owners of Château Canon and absorbed into that estate, and the label stopped there. What remains are the bottles.
For its size it kept remarkably good company. The vines sat on the same shallow clay over limestone as its famous neighbours, worked for years by the Landé family, and the wine was Merlot-dominated with Cabernet Franc — firm, mineral, slow to open, the plateau style in miniature.
1985 was a warm, dry, generous year in Saint-Émilion, among the better vintages of the decade on the right bank. At forty years old this is a mature and fragile thing, sold as a collectible item rather than with any promise about the glass. For anyone who cares about the map of Saint-Émilion, it is a bottle from a corner that no longer exists.
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Producer: Château Cure-Bon La Madeleine
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Vintage: 1985
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Appellation: Saint-Émilion AOC
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Format: 75cl
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Region: Bordeaux, France
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Style: Red
Where it is likely to be now. Plateau limestone wines age slowly, but bottles from a five-hectare property are rarely stored perfectly across four decades, so treat this as mature to fragile and open it with an open mind.
Who it suits. A gift for the collector rather than the drinker turning forty-one; the appeal here is a vanished Saint-Émilion label, not the promise of a great glass.
Condition. The label is in good order and the wine has settled to between very top shoulder and base of neck, which is what you would hope to see at forty years.
Provenance. Bought to order from a professional European merchant. We check fill, label and capsule when the bottle reaches us and photograph it before it ships.
Delivered in 7 to 10 working days, tracked. Transit cover can be added at checkout.
Sold as a collectible item, as seen. No guarantee is given on drinkability.
