White buffaloes, coelacanths, and unicorns are all exceedingly rare, but none more so than the perfect wine.

Prior to this issue, in 23 years of evaluating wines for publication I had only given five perfect scores. It’s not that I’m stingy; it’s just that there is almost always room for improvement, no matter how good the wine. I used to count the number of wines I tasted each year. I stopped counting in 1996, when I surpassed 30,000. So wines I’ve rated as perfect represent a minuscule fraction of all the wines I’ve tasted. In previous years I have only given perfect scores to a 1955 Krug Champagne; a 1993 Ridge Vineyards, Pagnani Ranch Zinfandel; a 1994 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon; a 1937 Quinto do Noval Port, and a Domaine de Romanee Conti La Tache whose vintage is lost in memory. A couple of well-aged 1967 and 1971 Sauternes came close, as did the 1986 Chateau Latour.

Then last spring I had two extraordinary wines that I simply could not discount in any measure. The random combination of human genetics only on rare occasions produces a person of exquisite beauty and grace. It’s even more rare to find a perfect confluence of all of the elements in a wine. If you’re lucky enough to obtain either of these wines, set aside an evening for rapt appreciation – they’re that good.