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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Since the 17th Century, the first wine of Château Margaux has been recognised as being one of the greatest wines in the entire world. It owes its unique qualities to the genius of its terroir as well as to the passionate work of a succession of generations. It’s a remarkable wine that comes from a combination of characteristics that are only rarely found: finesse, elegance, complexity, density, intensity, length and freshness. Although its tannic concentration may be exceptional, it’s rare to detect astringency.
The great vintages are distinguished by their formidable ability to move us. The lesser vintages give pleasure to wise enthusiasts. They offer the advantage of evolving very rapidly and, reveal, after a few years, instead of power, this subtlety that is the prerogative of great terroirs. Château Margaux has an extraordinary ability to evolve. Over the years, it has developed a finesse, an aromatic complexity and a remarkable presence on the palate.
Château Margaux has sought to achieve excellence in its wines for over 400 years now through painstaking and necessarily long studies of its terroir, through a constant desire to learn and innovate, by remaining sensitive to demanding markets, and above all through a passionate commitment that has been shared by the families that have succeeded each other at the estate. At the end of the 17th century, it became part of the nascent elite “First Growths” – long before being established officially by the Classification of 1855. Since then, Château Margaux has known fame and fortune, seeing by experience how ephemeral both are.
The estate has 200 acres under vine. Each plot and each variety are treated differently from pruning throughout the growing season. Chateau Margaux’ goal is to nurture and maintain vines for as long as possible, as they believe vines need to reach 20 years of age to produce great wine. The estate is constantly trying to understand through experimentation how to improve soil health and fruit quality. Today, no insecticides are used, there is an important balance of healthy insects to counter pests, and any number of experiments with ploughing, organic farming, and biodynamic applications are ongoing. A final key point to note, Margaux has for the last 30+ years had among the lowest yields in the Medoc.
The wine was aged for 15 months, in 10% new oak and 90% second use barrels. Because of the particularities of the vintage, Cabernet Sauvignon made up an extremely high 88% of the blend, with Merlot only 12% of the blend. Importantly, the wine is held in bottle until ready to drink, which may not mean that vintages are released sequentially.
Wine Information
The harvest in 1989 was the earliest since 1893, when it started on August 17th at Château Margaux… Merlot, Cabernets, and Petit Verdot reached an exceptional level of ripeness, which brought back memories of the legendary 1982; the sugar levels were even higher in 1989. The development of the wine in bottle has confirmed the great expectations we immediately had at the harvest. Richness, complexity and opulence could be the key words to describe this outstanding wine. We felt it was a wine which was already nice to drink from the day it was made; it was actually the great ripeness of the grapes which gave the tannins that smoothness which is only normally acquired after a long period in bottle. (May 2011)
Weather
1989 will long be remembered as an exceptionally early vintage and a very easy one, from a vine-growing point of view. The flowering, then the colour-change and the ripening all took place in perfect weather, which was particularly hot and dry. Finally, there was not one single day of rain during the harvest. From beginning to end, then, 1989 was a dream year. (The picking began 11th September)
Vuosikerta 1989
Bordeaux: The 2nd in a trio of great vintages and which produced a large harvest of ripe, rich and fleshy wines which generally possess soft, silky tannins, accompanied by a high alcohol level. It was the hottest summer since 1949 and the harvest began on August 28, the earliest since 1893. The grapes were harvested in dry conditions, the only concern being that some acidity levels were low, which which has led to suggestions that some wines would not be suitable for long-term aging. Ten years later, these fears have proven to be largely unfounded, as the best wines are now showing extremely well, showing concentration and great complexity.
Viinilasisuositus
Viinin keskihinta
| 2024 | 2020 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2005 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 560€ +9.8% | 510€ +24.1% | 411€ +5.9% | 388€ +10.2% | 352€ -5.9% | 374€ -11.2% | 421€ -5.2% | 444€ +113.5% | 208€ +50.7% | 138€ |
This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.