How difficult it is to follow a vintage as amazing as 2015! However, Château Margaux 2016 fits well into the continuity of the greatest vintages of the beginning of this century!
The nose is particularly delicate, complex and deep. On the palate, the wine has incredible volume, smoothness and length. Of course, it is our large plots of Cabernet Sauvignon that give this wine all its elegance. They make up 94% of the blend. The Merlots and the Cabernet Francs, with respectively 2% and 3%, bring a great complexity to the wine both with aroma, and with the smoothness of their tannic structure. Finally, the Petit Verdots, despite their small quantity (only 1% of the blend), bring considerable density and volume.
In spite of this vintage's dry and sunny summer conditions, this wine has kept all its acid potential, the beginnings of perfect evolution and preservation. Château Margaux 2016 is an exceptional wine, the result of the combination of amazing weather conditions, the knowledge of our terroir and a great selection effort (28% of the harvest).
(October 2018)
Margaux
Climate
The wet and relatively mild winter led to quite early sprouting in the last week of March. The 400 mm of rain during the first 3 months of the year helped to replenish the ground water after a rather dry 2015. The spring rains came very close together and thus gave the impression that they had been plentiful, whereas in fact, the total of all the rain only amounted to the average of the last 30 years. The vines nevertheless managed to find a few rare, beautiful sunny days to blossom between June 6th and 8th.
The contrast with the summer drought was just as striking. Only 8 mm of rain fell during July and August. Even though the very young plants showed a few marked signs of hydric stress, our old vines behaved perfectly, once again demonstrating this species’ incredible capacity to adapt to the climate. Although dry, the summer wasn’t exceptionally hot. Only the second half of August was marked by higher than normal temperatures. The combination of these factors caused the colour change to be quite spread out. September, with its dry days and cool nights, enabled the grapes to complete their ripening process in optimal conditions.
The harvest of the reds, which was the most staggered in the history of the Estate, took place from September 23rd to October 18th.
All through the summer, with every passing day, we felt a little more excited at the thought of a great new vintage taking shape…