The Château Margaux Style

This tasting showed for me the wonderful singularity and personality of the wines of Château Margaux. Opulence, without the showiness of Mouton; fragrance without the earthiness of Haut-Brion; firmness without the masculinity of Latour.

The tasting showed me what the experts who have written about Margaux have been saying for years – Château Margaux is Château Margaux – a very beautiful wine.

Choosing the line up

Choosing the ten-vintage line up was an early consideration for this tasting. There is some debate about the virtues of the Ginestet ownership period (1934-1977), particularly the latter period where a lack of investment when the family had financial difficulties, led some, such as Robert Parker to write that the 1960s and 1970s period was ‘a distressing period of mediocrity, when far too many wines lacking richness, concentration, and character were produced’. (Bordeaux IV: 336). Others, such as Broadbent and Peppercorn assert that the AM/PM (ante-Mentzelopoulos, post-Mentzelopoulos) point is pushed too far, too unfairly. For Broadbent the Ginestets ‘did in fact run the property extremely well until the very unfortunate financial debacle in the mid-1970s’. (Bordeaux Atlas)

My own tasting of the 1975 and 1971 late last year put me in the former camp, though the 1961, 1959, and 1953 – all made under the Ginestet regime, have universally good reputations. Of the 1975 I wrote: ‘still ruby with a bricky rim; sweeter and more intense aroma than the 1971, with notes on pepper, leather and dust; palate piquant, dried out and ferociously tannic. Drinkable, but only just.’  Of the 1971 I thought ‘Tomato flesh colour, pale; light, classic cedary fruit on the nose, though faint; completely dried out on the palate – almost nothing there at all. A shell of a wine.’