Château La Mission-Haut-Brion

Château La Mission Haut-Brion faces its great rival Haut-Brion across a Pessac road, and for a century their duel has been one of Bordeaux's most compelling rivalries — settled, in a sense, in 1983, when the Dillon family bought La Mission and brought both under one roof while keeping their identities firmly apart. Founded by Vincentian missionaries whose chapel still stands among the cellars, La Mission makes the more flamboyant wine of the pair: deeper-hued, smokier, more muscular, and in vintages like 1975 or 2005 fully the equal of the First Growths. La Chapelle de la Mission is the second wine, and its white is among Bordeaux's rarest.