Big Bottles: Seven Magnums and a 3-Liter on the Shelf
Sep 28, 2026
A big bottle turns any dinner into an occasion. Everything in the photo is still on our shelf, from the two Prüm Rieslings on the left to the Rostaing Côte-Rôtie on the right, but a few of them are down to the last bottle.
A magnum is two bottles in one, which makes it the easy answer for a dinner party. It is also the format collectors hunt for: big bottles are known for aging more slowly and more gracefully, so long-lived wines like the Prüm and the Rostaing have plenty of road ahead of them. As for the 3-liter Triennes, that one is for a crowd.
Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2022, Magnum
Prüm's wines are famous for evolving slowly even in standard bottles. Both Prüm magnums come from old, largely ungrafted vines in Wehlener Sonnenuhr, the sundial vineyard of stony Devonian slate directly across the Mosel from the winery in Wehlen. Kabinett is the first rung of the Prädikat ladder: 8 percent alcohol, white peach, lemon, and lime over cut stone, a gentle sweetness, and the acidity to carry it for decades.
Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2022, Magnum
The Spätlese is later-picked fruit from the same vineyard, and the warm, dry 2022 season made it unusually generous for the house: white peach, pear, rose, and honeysuckle, a dense and juicy palate, and a long saline finish that reads drier than the label suggests. Open the two side by side and you have a clear lesson in how the Prädikat levels differ within one vineyard and one vintage.
Antica A26 Vineyard Napa Valley Chardonnay 2019, Magnum
Antica is the Antinori family's Napa estate on Atlas Peak. A26 is its top Chardonnay, made only in standout vintages and named for Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia Antinori, the family's 26th generation. The fruit comes from high-elevation blocks where cold night air holds the heat in check. Only free-run juice is used, fermented in new French oak and aged ten months on the lees with minimal malolactic. The 2019 shows baked apple, spiced apricot, brioche, and crushed stone: creamy, but with plenty of energy.
Triennes Rosé 2025, 3-Liter and Triennes Rosé 2025, Magnum
Domaine de Triennes was founded by two of Burgundy's best-known names, Jacques Seysses of Domaine Dujac and Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. The estate sits at about 380 meters in the Var, where warm days, cool nights, and limestone soils shape the wine. It is a blend of Cinsault, Syrah, Grenache, and Merlot, picked at night, pressed directly, and aged on its fine lees. Pale, with red fruit, a soft note of marshmallow, and a round, seamless palate. Rosé does not stop working after Labor Day, and a 3-liter makes the point for you.
Lafarge-Vial Fleurie La Joie du Palais 2020, Magnum
In 2014 Frédéric and Chantal Lafarge of Domaine Michel Lafarge in Volnay started a second estate in cru Beaujolais and brought their certified biodynamic farming with them. La Joie du Palais is their flagship: gobelet-trained vines planted in the 1950s on crumbly pink granite high on the Fleurie slope beside La Madone, a third of the parcel so steep that only a horse can work it. It is fermented with about 15 percent whole clusters on native yeasts in concrete, then aged a year in used barrels.
Lafarge-Vial Côte de Brouilly 2020, Magnum
Same family, same vintage, different hill. This comes from Brulhié, a 0.66-hectare parcel of Gamay planted in the late 1960s on the southeast flank of Mont Brouilly, where the granite is shot through with the blue stone the hill is known for. It is also plowed by horse. Mostly destemmed with a portion of whole clusters, native yeasts, and about a year in used barrels. Pour it next to the Fleurie and taste how much the site matters.
René Rostaing Ampodium Côte-Rôtie 2017, Magnum
René Rostaing built one of Côte-Rôtie's defining estates on vines inherited from two legends of the appellation, his uncle Marius Gentaz and his father-in-law Albert Dervieux. His son Pierre has run the domaine since 2015. Ampodium is the old name for Ampuis, and the wine is the house blend: Syrah from more than a dozen parcels across the appellation, fermented largely with whole clusters and raised with very little new oak. The 2017 is pure and dark-fruited, with violets and polished tannins. It is approachable now and built to hold.
Quantities are small and several of these are the last bottle. First come, first served.
