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Description
Tasting notes

Reviewed by: Neal Martin
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.

Reviewed by: William Kelley
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.
About the Producer
Chateau Margaux is located in the village of Margaux, in the Medoc appellation on the left bank of Bordeaux, and was awarded a First Growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Medoc classification, alongside Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour and Château Haut-Brion. It is also known as Chateau Haut-Brion. Château Margaux currently covers a total of 262 hectares, including 99 hectares of vineyards. The red vineyard has an appellation of 87 hectares, of which 82 hectares are planted, while the white vineyard is planted with 12 hectares. The red varieties are mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc; the white varieties are Sauvignon Blanc and the vines are on average 45 years old. Since the end of the 1990s, the estate has refused to use pesticides in the vineyards. In addition, only organic fertilisers are used in the vineyard, and deep fertilisation is carried out at regular intervals to improve the soil structure and rejuvenate the soil. During the harvest season, the winery team selects the right time to harvest the grapes by testing and analysing all the indicators and by tasting the grapes themselves. Once the grapes have reached their ideal state of ripeness, they are harvested by a team of over 200 trained harvesters. Once in the winery, the grapes undergo a rigorous selection process before being de-stemmed. Both oak barrels and stainless steel tanks are used to ferment the red grapes, while the white grapes are fermented entirely in oak barrels. After the alcoholic fermentation, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation. The red wines are then left to mature in oak barrels for 18-24 months and the whites for 6-8 months. The main wine of the estate, Château Margaux's red wine, is rich and complex, with an elegant and powerful ballet on the tongue, rich and smooth tannins, good balance and a long, fresh finish with excellent ageing potential. It successfully conquered Napoleon Bonaparte, the founder of the First French Empire, and won the hearts of Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the United States, and Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" of England. In the world of wine criticism, Château Margaux's red wines have also been recognised, with four perfect scores from Robert Parker and many more from other critics with 95 points or more. In recent years, the quality of Château Margaux's red wines has been steady and has maintained a high level of interest in the market.