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  • Country ranking ?

    855
  • Producer ranking ?

    37
  • Decanting time

    1h30min
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    Citrus Brined Pork Chops

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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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.

 

 

 

 

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Wine Information

1945 is a legendary year ! In symbolic fashion, a great vintage came along to celebrate the end of the Second World War… Château Margaux 1945 is a very powerful, concentrated, mature wine, with a fine, complex bouquet, which is more elegant than the 1947 and 1949, which seem to have been more affected by the extreme heat of the summer. This wine possesses all the attributes of an outstandingly great vintage of its generation. The tannic freshness remains present on the palate and will very probably enable it to age even longer.

Weather
After an early bud-break, a terrible frost on 2nd May severely reduced the crop size. Then, from the beginning of the summer until the end of the harvest, the weather was extremely favourable. (The picking began 12th September)




 

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Vintage 1945

The best vintage in the world – 1947 or 1945? Tastingbook has tasted all the best wines from these two great vintages.

If wine producers from different regions were asked to name the best vintages in their wine history, most would name 1947 or 1945 as one of the greats. If we then compared them, there would probably only be one vintage that most, if not all, producers had named on the list – 1947.

We wanted to test this theory and we tasted them against each other and the winner was 1947 – by a long shot.

The 1947 vintage was a magical vintage. It goes down in history as one of the only vintages that all the well-established quality wine regions in the world were blessed with superb weather conditions. Heatwaves have been experienced all over the world and, for example, all of Europe was blazing under the blazing sun and experiencing a heatwave during the summer. This resulted in very concentrated and very ripe grapes. Growers found it difficult to handle very ripe grapes with high sugar levels because there was a constant risk of bacterial contamination in less hygienic wineries that did not have artificial cooling systems. Since there was no technology to use, many relied on huge blocks of ice to cool the room temperature and even put ice in their fermentation tanks.

This vintage has proven to produce very long-lasting wines from around the world. The wines are marked by a sweet, ripe fruit character and warming alcohol. Due to unhygienic winemaking facilities, many wines exhibit volatile characters. Some might find this a flaw, but for many mature wine lovers, this feature is even a favorite character. However, when purchasing wines from this vintage one should be aware that there is a high level of bottle variation and the risk of having highly volatile wines is remarkably high.

1945 was an exceptional year throughout France, from Côte-Rôtie to Bordeaux. Due to the hot and dry conditions, the grapes were very concentrated and produced an extraordinary, but unfortunately low, yield. The 1945 harvest was an early harvest, beginning on the same date as 1982, September 13. The wines started life with massive levels of tannin and took several decades to develop. Due to the high levels of tannins, many wines still show well today.

 

 

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Average Bottle Price

2015 2014 2012 2011 2010 2005 2000 1995
1 670€ +17.5% 1 421€ -4.5% 1 488€ +7.3% 1 387€ +7.5% 1 290€ +147.6% 521€ +29.0% 404€ +4.1% 388€

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.

Tasting note

color

Full, Brick red and Healthy

ending

Medium, Gentle and Flavorful

nose

Refined and Closed

recommend

Yes

taste

Warming, High tannin, Balanced, Well-Integrated, Well-structured, Developing, Medium-bodied, Elegant, Round, Full and Silky tannins

Verdict

Excellent and Well-rounded

Written Notes

The 1945 Chateau Margaux had a mmm mmm great nose that was smoky, elegant and smooth. It had this ‘good cardboard’ to it, like a new Chanel box for women. Its palate was simpler and easy, a bit woodsy yet pleasantly full-bodied (93).
  • 93p

Ch. Margaux 1945 – salty (oysters) on the nose, elegant and sophisticated, refined and great length. Still having fun and making wine tasters happier. 94p.

  • 94p

1945 is a legendary year ! In symbolic fashion, a great vintage came along to celebrate the end of the Second World War… Château Margaux 1945 is a very powerful, concentrated, mature wine, with a fine, complex bouquet, which is more elegant than the 1947 and 1949, which seem to have been more affected by the extreme heat of the summer. This wine possesses all the attributes of an outstandingly great vintage of its generation. The tannic freshness remains present on the palate and will very probably enable it to age even longer.

It's always very special to try a wine from 1945. Again, a bit worried about the mid shoulder fill. Ruby, with brick rim, very mature, leather, apples, plums, takes about ten to fifteen minutes before the floral and violet notes arrive, figs, fine black tea, think the tea department at Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, some volatile high-notes in the back, not quite the 61 but a beauty. Minerals. Fresh acidity, elegant texture, ripe tannins, elegant body as well, not too intense on the palate, all about layers and elegance, not power and fruit, long finish.
  • 93p
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Information

Origin

Margaux, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

Serious

Glass time

1h
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