The vineyard of Château Margaux stands as the producer of one of the world's greatest and most sought-after red wines. One of only five wines to achieve First Growth status in the oft-cited 1855 Bordeaux Classification, its vintages command a consistently high premium and are stored and traded over periods of many decades.

The château lies in the commune of Margaux in the great wine-producing region of Médoc in the département of Gironde, benefiting from the area's celebrated terrain on the left bank of the Garonne estuary.

History

The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, but it was only with the arrival of the Lestonnac family in the 16th century that wine production became of particular importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac cleared many of the cereal fields to make way for grapes. By 1700 the estate covered its present area of 265 hectares, and the 78 hectares devoted to vines has remained essentially unchanged since then.

As with most of Médoc's great châteaux, the 18th century saw the wine develop from a pale watery drink that faded within only a few years, to the dark, complex liquid that has been stored in dusty cellars ever since. At Château Margaux this transformation was largely due to a manager named Berlon who revolutionised techniques of wine-making by introducing novel ideas such as forbidding harvesting in the early morning to avoid dew -covered grapes, and acknowledging for the first time the importance of the soil quality.

By the 19th century, the estate's wine was firmly established among the very best in France, with Thomas Jefferson placing it number one in his carefully-studied classification, and in 1855 the famous classification ordered by Napoleon III confirmed its status, with Château Margaux the only wine to be awarded 20/20 in the blind-tastings of Bordeaux's finest wines.

The estate's château itself was built in 1810 when the Marquis de la Colonilla comissioned one of France's foremost architects, Louis Combes , to create a building worthy of the wines that were made on the site. The result was Combes' masterpiece, a palace in neo-Palladian style that has been called the 'Versailles of the Médoc'.

In the 1970s, after a series of low-quality vintages, the owners Ferdinand and Pierre Ginestet, owners of the estate since 1950, were forced to sell Château Margaux. The successful buyer was French grocery and finance group Félix Potin , headed by Greek André Mentzelopoulos . Mentzelopoulos transformed the vineyard through well-chosen investment in the wine-making process and by his death in 1980 Château Margaux was back among the region's very finest wines. More recently, the estate has changed hands via complex deals between Perrier and Fiat, but the management remains in the hands of Mentzelopoulos' daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos.

Vines

As is predominantly the case in Médoc, the majority of the vines are Cabernet Sauvignon, with its vines covering 75 percent of the vineyards. Next comes Merlot at 20 percent, with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot making up the rest. Around 30,000 cases are made annually, with production divided between the famous Premier Cru and the additional 'Pavillon Rouge'. A small amount of Sauvignon Blanc is also grown to make the 'Pavillon Blanc' wine.

Greatest Vintages

The finest vintages of Château Margaux are listed below, with particularly strong years given in bold.

1900, 1934, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1983, 1986, 1990, 1995, 2000

External Site

• Château Margaux