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  • Country ranking ?

    1 821
  • Producer ranking ?

    123
  • Decanting time

    45min
  • When to drink

    Now
  • Food Pairing

    Venison with Red Wine Sauce

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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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Vintage 1977

Bordeaux / The 1977 vintage ended up being one of the poorest of the 1970s. Early budburst faced a damaging spring frost, reducing crop size from small to minimal. The forming crop was poorly treated by the cool and constantly wet summer. Then came the driest September in 125 years, followed by a dry October saving the vintage from total disaster. The epitome of the vintage was the poorest Mouton-Rothschild ever made. The only pleasure it can give is the beautiful label. On the other hand, there are surprises. Lafite with a ridiculous price of 150 euros per bottle turned out to be very pleasant. The best experience this year is still the Yquem produced in very small quantities. Overall, all dry wines were ready to drink upon release and are not

 

Main characteristics of the vintage
From the beginning of March, the weather was good with temperatures quite high above the seasonal average causing the vines to grow around March 10, which was really very early. At the end of the month, despite the sunny weather, it was rather cold (on March 31, the temperature dropped below 2°C). Merlots and Cabernet Francs were first affected by the frost, because their growth predated that of Cabernet Sauvignons. The Montrose vineyard, well ventilated by its proximity to the Gironde estuary, was never subject to spring frosts before 1977. Then, May and June were too mild for the season with precipitation. Early vegetation was delayed and flowering was late (mid-flowering on June 21). If July temperatures were normal, August and September lacked sun and heat, leading to insufficient maturity of the grapes. The first days of harvest were characterized by alternating rain and sun, followed by nice cool weather. During this period, the temperature did not exceed 20°C;

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Information

Origin

Margaux, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Below Average

Value For Money

Poor

Investment potential

No Potential

Fake factory

None

Glass time

30min
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