Nobody has settled where the name came from. One account credits Lord Byron, another Baudelaire, whose Spleen poems gave French its word for a particular kind of melancholy. Either way, Chasse-Spleen has spent a century as the Médoc estate that outperforms its rank — a Cru Bourgeois in Moulis making wine that regularly embarrassed classified growths a few villages north.
The 1979 falls inside the Villars era, which began in 1976 and is generally taken as the property's high-water mark. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in near-equal measure, grown on deep gravel, gave a wine built to be firm young and generous late.
The fill on this bottle is still in the bottom of the neck after forty-seven years, which tells you the cork held and the cellar stayed cold. That is rarer than it sounds.
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Producer: Château Chasse-Spleen
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Vintage: 1979
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Appellation: Moulis-en-Médoc 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. Chasse-Spleen was always built to last, and with a fill this high the wine has a genuine chance of still being alive and savoury rather than merely intact.
Who it suits. Well suited to a couple marking forty-seven years of marriage in 2026, or to anyone who enjoys the idea of a wine that quietly beat its own classification.
Condition. Good label, a little corrosion on the metal capsule from decades in a damp cellar, and a fill still at the bottom of the neck — unusually high for 1979 and a strong sign of careful storage.
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.
