We would only experience a terrible winter like 1956 again in 1985, when the temperature dropped almost as low, but at the beginning of January, not in February, as in 1956. The damage to the vegetation was therefore more devastating in 1956. Château Margaux 1956 is obviously not a very good vintage... It is a light wine, with a slightly strange nose; in fact, without much interest.
(March 2011)
Margaux
Climate
The winter, which will be remembered for its record cold weather (it was -20°C in Bordeaux and the Garonne river had blocks of ice floating along it...), was fatal to numerous plots in the Bordeaux region -but not in Margaux, where the vines suffered very little. But the growing season got underway very late, and the cold and rainy summer finally sealed the sad fate of this vintage. (The picking began 8th October)