Château Margaux 2012

Characteristics and tasting advice for Château Margaux 2012

Tasting

The excellent press wines contributed great density and magnificent flesh to the blend, while preserving its incredible finesse. On the palate, Château Margaux 2012 is a powerful, pure, well-balanced wine with irresistible charm.

A powerful, pure and well-balanced Margaux wine

The estate
With origins dating back to the 12th century, Château Margaux is among the Grands Crus that have built the legend of Bordeaux’s great wines around the world. In 1855, the estate was ranked Premier Grand Cru Classé and was the only one of the four châteaux presented to receive a perfect score of twenty out of twenty. With the acquisition of the estate in 1977 by André Mentzelopoulos, Château Margaux began a new chapter in its history. Elevating the Grand Vin of Château Margaux to the highest level, he reintroduced the estate’s Second Wine, Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux, first initiated in 1908. Following in her father’s footsteps after his premature passing, Corinne Mentzelopoulos took up the family banner with energy and passion to preserve the standing of Château Margaux, now a Bordeaux masterpiece, instantly recognizable by its neo-Palladian style. Vintage after vintage, the estate’s wines rank among the greatest in the world.

The vineyard
The vineyard of Château Margaux owes its uniqueness to its rare and singular terroir, located on a gravelly rise. The estate’s plantings give pride of place to the zone’s flagship black grape, Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. The estate’s clay-limestone soils give rise to legendary wines with a racy, sensual character, so representative of the Margaux appellation.

The wine

The 2012 vintage of Château Margaux represents 34% of total production.

The vintage

2012 marked a return to a very classic climate: after a harsh winter, especially in February, a waterlogged spring gave way to a very dry summer, before the rains returned from September 20 onward. While the prolonged humidity through mid-July encouraged downy mildew, it also provided the framework for a decisive step forward in our organic initiatives: no insecticides for ten years, and that year only a single chemical treatment on the grand vin parcels, compared to seven or eight typically. From July 15, dry, moderately warm weather, occasionally punctuated by heat spikes, created conditions worthy of great Bordeaux vintages—conducive to both ripening and concentration—even though young vines and less favored terroirs suffered from the abrupt regime change. Autumn, from its very first day, brought steady but measured rainfall—too late to compromise the sanitary condition of the grapes, though just enough to deprive, by a matter of days, the major-vintage status that 2012 seemed to promise. The white harvest took place from September 10 to 14, and the red from September 25 to October 16, just before the skies closed in.

Blend

87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot.