Need help? Call +44 (0)20 7793 7900 or email wine@goedhuiswaddesdon.com.
It is not often that the first wine of the primeur season ends up being my wine of the vintage but it was so clearly the case, with this truly fantastic Ch Margaux. I have tasted it on 3 separate occasions and I could go back and back again... Faultless in both style and balance, this is a great wine in the making. As in all the great Ch Margaux vintages this is a hugely Cabernet dominant style and just perfect in itself, full of harmony, integration of fruit, tannins and acidity. Beautifully intense without being over-concentrated, it is quite simply a beauty... DR
It is not often that the first wine of the primeur season ends up being my wine of the vintage but it was so clearly the case, with this truly fantastic Ch Margaux. I have tasted it on 3 separate occasions and I could go back and back again... Faultless in both style and balance, this is a great wine in the making. As in all the great Ch Margaux vintages this is a hugely Cabernet dominant style and just perfect in itself, full of harmony, integration of fruit, tannins and acidity. Beautifully intense without being over-concentrated, it is quite simply a beauty... DR
The 2010 Château Margaux is refulgent in colour with little ageing on the rim. The bouquet is stunning: brilliant definition, very mineral driven at first, becoming more floral with aeration. Blackberry, hints of graphite, iris more than violet here. The palate is really the complete package, combining the power and finesse that this First Growth delivers like few others when it is in top flight. There is a sense of symmetry here, everything perfectly balanced, tensile and brimming with energy. For sure, it is a long-term proposition and you might interpret that the finish is severe. Rather, it’s just too young to be approached and it will require a decade in bottle before it is anywhere close to ready. What a monumental Margaux this is turning out to be, perhaps even better than I thought. Tasted at the château.
A blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot and 1.5% Petit Verdot and 1.5% Cabernet Franc with a pH 3.65 (it was 3.75 in 2009.) The Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the nose more than any other vintage of Chateau Margaux that I have tasted out of barrel, lending it a Pauillac-like personality. Blackberry, graphite and a soupcon of liquorice. The tannins are exceptionally fine, real backbone here and a sense of ambition that I think neither the 2008 nor even the 2009 demonstrated. The clarity on the finish is truly outstanding and it seems to mellow and gain more sensuality with further aeration.
The 2010 is a brilliant Chateau Margaux, as one might expect in this vintage. The percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the final blend hit 90%, the balance Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and only 38% of the crop made it into the Chateau Margaux. Paul Pontallier, the administrator, told me that this wine has even higher levels of tannin than some other extraordinary vintages such as 2005, 2000, 1996, etc. Deep purple, pure and intense, with floral notes, tremendous opulence and palate presence, this is a wine of considerable nobility. With loads of blueberry, black currant and violet-infused fruit and a heady alcohol level above 13.5% (although that looks modest compared to several other first growths, particularly Chateau Latour and Chateau Haut-Brion), its beautifully sweet texture, ripe tannin, abundant depth and profound finish all make for another near-perfect wine that should age effortlessly for 30-40 years.
Paul Pontallier was rattling off some interesting statistics about Chateau Margaux. The 2000 (a great, great wine) was 13.1% natural alcohol, the 2005 13.1%, the 2009 13.2%, and the 2010, the highest ever measured, 13.5%. That is still nearly one degree less than the Pauillac first-growth of Chateau Latour at 14.4%. This blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc (representing only 38% of the total production) has the classic, quintessential Margaux character of spring flowers, almost cool-climate precision, medium body, and a seamless integration of tannin, wood and alcohol. The blue and black fruit characteristics are present, and the wine restrained. The most measured and polished of all the first growths I tasted, it is also less concentrated than any of the other first growths, but the elegance is classic. The harvest finished on October 15, which was not their latest by any means. This is one of the few first growths of 2010 where the tannins are remarkably delicate and sweet, and the softness of this wine will provide magical drinking at a relatively early age, yet its balance and concentration will carry it for 20 or more years. Drink: 2011 - 2031
A phenomenal nose of roses, violets, and other flowers. Subtle yet rich raspberries and currants. It is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The is a curious wine, almost ethereal. It is all in the front of the palate with ultra-fine tannins. It is full and very, very rich but it is forever balanced and in harmony What a wine. It is a pinpointed wine. So cerebral. It sends shivers down my spine. Incredible.
Superb colour, a lovely concentration of polished flavours that stay on the palate forever, unbelievable freshness and density, a truly great wine. Drink 2020-50.
Amazingly dark purple. Very, very strongly Cabernet Sauvignon (90% of the blend - only 2006 matched it) with some light vegetation at first which opened out and mellowed to something utterly seductive in the glass. Dry and intense. Very rich on the front and amazingly supple – it smells as though it may be going to be a bit of brute but on the palate it is still so intense and polished initially but then it is clear that there are masses and masses of tannins. There is noble, fine, perfectly confident, minerally fruit that opens out on the palate. It is thinkable to drink this already! Paul Pontallier: ‘We decanted the samples but it still grows in the glass.' 13.5%. Drink2020-2050
A major step up. The final blend is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with only 7 percent Merlot and 1.5 percent each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. This is only the second vintage this decade to contain as much as 90 percent Cabernet, along with the 2006. The wine is superfocused and racy, with torrents of red cherry, raspberry and red plum fruit. Again, despite the obvious weight, it has terrific mouthfeel as it glides effortlessly across the palate, while fantastic perfume develops on the finish
The 2010 Château Margaux performed far better at this horizontal than at Farr's blind tasting a few days later. It has a beguiling bouquet, highly perfumed with crushed violets infusing the blackberry and crushed strawberry scented, hints of pencil box and cedar emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. There is a wonderful sense of symmetry here with a silky elegant finish that is amazingly persistent. It is one of the best wines that Paul Pontallier ever made. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines Spirits 10-Year On tasting. 2025-2060
Plump, silky and seductive are the words often used to describe wines from Margaux. Because of their style, they tend to be user friendly and more approachable when young. This is in part due to its terroir which is comprised of the thinnest soil as well as the highest proportion of chunky gravel in all of the Médoc. It drains well but also is it more susceptible to vintage variation. Margaux wines tend to have the highest proportions of Merlot within the core of the Médoc further adding to their ample roundness and openness. Margaux is home to the largest number of classified growths including its namesake first growth, Château Margaux, as well as third growths, Palmer and d'Issan.
