Chateau Margaux: Premier Grand Cru Classe En 1855
Chateau Margaux is a nominee for a Luxist Award for Best International Red Wine. It is also a nominee in the Best International White Wine category.
For more than four centuries, Chateau Margaux has been making excellent wines and is credited with making some of the best wines of all time. Some of the winery's most well-known vintages include 1953, 1961, 1982, 1996 and 2000, among many others.
At the end of the 17th century, Chateau Margaux became part of the nascent elite "First Growths"--long before being established officially by the Classification of 1855. Since then, Chateau Margaux has known fame and fortune, seeing by experience how ephemeral both are. Chateau Margaux 1771 was the first Bordeaux vintage to appear in a Christie's catalogue in 1776. It was described as "an excellent claret with a fine flavor from the 1771 vintage." Its 1791 vintage was considered by Christie's wine catalogue (May 23, 1797) as being the best that France has produced in many years, and "is difficult at this moment to find anything comparable."
While Chateau Margaux has been a wine of excellence for more than four centuries, today, it is linked most closely to the work of Andre Mentzelopoulos, who became proprietor in 1977. During his brief time, he left on Chateau Margaux the lasting mark of his vision and his exceptional personality. His daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos and her team still devote the same passion serving this remarkable place.
Chateau Margaux is one of the few chateaux to have a research & development department. "It is important not to take anything for granted," says Paul Pontallier, its General Director. "We continue our search and fine tune details to achieve as much as we can. It is a constant search for excellence."
Chateau Margaux has, along with a few other great wines, an extraordinary ability to develop over time a range of flavors and fragrances that are judged as being remarkable--and above all--enjoyable--than those of young wines. Bottle ageing refines, but doesn't fade their flavors, and softens but doesn't eliminate their slightly raw, tannic power. What its wines lose in freshness and power, they gain in subtleness and complexity.
The 262 hectares (650 acre) chateau, is planted with 203 acres of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot and cabernet franc. Its white vineyard is 30 acres in size and is planted with sauvignon blanc. The average age of the vines are 25 years. The average age of its vines is 35 years. Its fermentation process for its red wines includes three weeks in oak vats, while the ageing process lasts 18 to 24 months in new oak barrels (the fining uses egg whites). The white wines are fermented in oak barrels while they are aged six to seven months also in oak barrels. Its average annual production is 150,000 bottles of Chateau Margaux, 200,000 bottles of Pavillon Rouge and 33,000 bottles of Pavillon Blanc.
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