Château Margaux, 1er Cru Classé, Margaux, 2025
Aurelien explained the team at Margaux was concerned by the potential alcohols at the end of August, a month out from the predicted harvest. Thankfully there was a heavy shower, which lowered the potential alcohol levels and revived the vines. Philippe Bascaules has experience working in California and is used to small well-aerated berries. Other chateaux harvested early, fearing botrytis; Philippe knew there was no such risk, waiting for perfect phenolic maturity in the grapes. Alas, yields are miniscule, just 22 hl/ha, the smallest vintage of Chateau Margaux since 1856. The grand vin accounts for just 37% of the production from the finest old-vine plots. It is a masterpiece. Opening with peonies, roses and lilacs mingled with complex hedgerow fruits, sandalwood and oriental spices. Beguiling from the very first impression, the palate continues in the same mesmerising vein coating the mouth with cashmere-textured fruit and the softest, powdery tannins. There is so much wine here, but it's so graceful and harmonious, gently enveloping the tastebuds with sweet griotte and intriguing spices, culminating in a haunting, floral finish. Graceful, sculpted; just a magnificent Margaux.
critic reviews
The 2025 Château Margaux was picked at 22 hl/ha between 10 and 29 September. This year it represents 37% of the total crop, a little down on recent vintages, and was matured in 100% new oak as usual. The first thing that you notice on this Château Margaux is the purity of fruit, a signature of the First Growth but taken to its maximum in this vintage. Perfumed blueberry, crushed violet and iris flower, a touch of iodine and a distant trace of the estuary. Wonderful delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with velvety tannins, fine delineation and poise. There is backbone to this Margaux but it is disguised under the layers of pure blackberry and blueberry fruit, dovetailing into a lightly spiced but very persistent finish. It fans out wonderfully, completing a very alluring wine in the making. This vintage contains 13.8% alcohol.
More dense and yet more soft than the Pavillon Rouge, fully anchored in place and yet rising through the palate, with rose petals, pomegranate, cassis and damson fruits, so juicy and full of character, slate and crushed rocks, peony and iris, with volume that is expansive and striking. These guys held on to harvest after the rains and have been rewarded for it - can't have been easy as everyone was picking around them, but this was a great decision that shows just what was capable in this vintage. 22hl/ha yield across the vineyard, harvest September 8 for young Merlot, then Cabernet Sauvignon began September 19 and finished September 29. 14% press wine, so a little less than usual because of the natural concentration. 22hl/ha yield across the vineyard, IPT81,3.76ph. 37% 1st wine. I dont give 100 points En Primeur, but if I did, this would get it. It's a slam dunk.
A blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2025 Château Margaux is a deep, authoritative wine that represents some 37% of the estate's production this year. Unwinding in the glass with notes of dark berries, violets, lilac and pencil shavings, framed by a deft touch of new oak, it's medium- to full-bodied, dense and layered, with a concentrated core of fruit framed by sweet, powdery tannins and lively acids. This will certainly require some patience, but it is a prodigious Château Margaux in the making. It checks in at 13.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.72.