2016 is the vintage the estate itself calls "exceptional" — a long, slow ripening season with big day-night temperature swings right through an October harvest, which refined the tannins and built aromatic complexity without losing freshness. This is the red grand vin of Malartic-Lagravière, sitting on a prime ridge of Quaternary Günzian gravel over a subsoil of shell limestone veined with clay. The 2016 came in Cabernet-led at 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, with 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, fermented in small truncated-cone wood and steel vats with a long 30-day cuvaison, then 18 months in French oak, 80% new — serious cellar treatment for a wine built to reward patience. The Bonnie family bought the 73-hectare estate at the end of 1996 and rebuilt it around gravity flow and gentle extraction, farming with horse-drawn ploughing, cover crops grazed by animals and HVE Level 3 certification (the highest tier) since 2015. Vines average 31 years at a dense 10,000 per hectare, picked by hand at a restrained 46 hl/ha. If you like your Pessac-Léognan classic rather than flashy — gravel, structure, a long life ahead — this is the address, and 2016 is the year to buy it in.