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Wine Description
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
In 1983 the spectacular success of the Margaux appellation in this vintage partly remains an enigma, which goes to show how limited our knowledge is about what makes a vintage successful… It would appear that the stormy rain showers in August were less heavy in Margaux than in other regions around Bordeaux. The 1983 Château Margaux is a very fine wine, that certain tasters find better than the 1982 vintage. We have followed this pair of vintages since the beginning with curiosity and sheer pleasure without ever making a definitive judgement as to their respective qualities. Over the years, one tasted better than the other and vice-versa…
Weather
After a very rainy spring, the month of June was hot and dry, making excellent conditions for the flowering. The summer was hot and humid, almost tropical, thus causing potential risks of disease. Then, as from the 10th September, very fine hot and sunny weather set in, helping the grapes to reach excellent ripeness levels. (The picking began on 29th September)
Vintage 1983
Bordeaux / If 1981 was forgotten after 1982, the 1983 was completely overshadowed by 1982, although the harvest was large and of high quality everywhere in Bordeaux. Too much humidity brought about by heavy rains impeded production in many places. In Margaux, some of the wines were even better than in 1982. For example, Château Margaux announced that their 1983 surpassed the 1982. One of the best-ever Palmers was Palmer 1983.
The best wine of the vintage was however Le Pin – no doubt. It is a real bargain, not only for quality, but also for price at 950 euro a bottle, compared with Le Pin 1982 at 4,500 euro in 2015. Cheval Blanc also succeeded fabulously. Yquem started a new ascent this year. Graves got hit by hail storm yielding a small crop and basically non-existent anymore.
Recommended glass shape
Average Bottle Price
| 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2005 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 475€ +10.0% | 432€ +7.7% | 401€ -21.2% | 509€ +15.9% | 439€ +53.0% | 287€ +100.7% | 143€ |
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.
