Chateau Margaux 1996

The 1996 Chateau Margaux, bottled in September 1998, is undoubtedly one of the great classics produced under the Mentzelopoulos regime. In many respects, it is the quintessential Chateau Margaux and the benchmark for the estate, combining measured power, extraordinary elegance, and admirable complexity. I tasted the wine on three separate occasions in January, and in short, it’s a beauty! The color is opaque purple. The wine offers extraordinarily pure notes of blackberry, cassis, pain grillé, and flowers, gorgeous sweetness, a seamless personality, and full body, with nothing out of place. The final blend (85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc) contains a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. It tastes complete and long, although backward. My instincts suggest this wine will shut down, but at present it is open-knit, tasting like a recently bottled wine. The fruit is exceptionally sweet and pure, and there are layers of flavor on the palate. I do believe this wine will develop an extraordinary bouquet and possess a high level of richness. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2040.

Softly spoken, fine tannins, pencil lead and leather, with truffle, earth, campfire and spice. Long, drawn-out finish, achingly slow, crushed stone, tobacco and dried roses. As with the 2001, the generosity and beauty of the aromatics tell you that this is absolutely ready to drink – although in many ways it feels like it will last longer than the 2001, as the tannins are still holding everything in place. This got the audience award on the night, and there’s no question it is a stunning wine that is still giving so much pleasure at 25 years old. The 1996 has really grown into itself – it was a late harvest at the time after a burst of rain at the end of September that they decided to wait out before picking, and they were rewarded with beautifully ripe Cabernet that was high in dense tannins and a little surly at first, but that has turned into one of the greatest vintages of the 1990s (rivalled only by 1990 itself in my opinion). 2% Cabernet Franc completes the blend, 100% new oak.

Dark crimson. Very fine, seamless and fragrant. Sweet and very Margaux – super charming. Already quite evolved for a first growth! Lovely polish. Though you would need to distract from the fine tannins there in abundance on the finish. Very fresh. No shortage of acidity. A little fragile and spiky. (JR)

This could hit triple digits in a few years. It continues filling out, gaining in complexity, richness, and texturally, additional layers of silk and velvet on the palate are the order of the day. This stunning wine is showing beautifully today, and while pricey, it is the best deal for a mature vintage of Chateau Margaux on the market today. Drink from 2023-2055.

While the 1996 Château Margaux has been closed and difficult to read for the past decade, it showed beautifully on this occasion, with its hallmark elegance and purity paired with a dense, powerful profile. Still youthfully ruby-hued with notes of pure crème de cassis, unsmoked tobacco, incense, and chocolate, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, building yet seamless tannins, and an awesome finish. This is pure class as well as a quintessential Margaux! To be on the safe side, give bottles another 4-5 years and it’s going to keep for 50-75 years.

Perfumed bouquet with a feminine touch: cranberries, red currant, the finest wood, rosewood, cigar box; it gains enormously in the glass and develops into a concentrated dream-like aroma. As on the nose, it clearly builds on the palate with air. Elegant and full of nuances, this is a very fine, aristocratic Margaux that already radiates great nobility and superb finesse. I loved it a year ago, and it’s a notch better now. 19.5/20

Concentrated, profound, complex, dark bouquet: small black berries, currants, fine woods, truffle, mint. A tightly knit, multi-layered, sensational palate with dense, dark fruit, plenty of fine tannins, dense, dark, superb aromatics, and a very long, compact finish. 20/20 drink - 2060

One of the wines of 20th-century Bordeaux, now at a beautiful moment to drink. I have been lucky enough to taste this a few times recently, and it delivers every time. Floral edges, a hint of gunsmoke, peony, a gentle intensity that builds before you even feel it, leading to a subtle power. This seems to float above the glass, with sweet fruit and silky tannins. 100% new oak. Paul Pontallier, director, delivering a stunning wine.

Medium garnet in color with a touch of brick, the 1996 Chateau Margaux prances out with the most gorgeous perfume of violets and rose bud tea, leading to a core of red currant jelly, raspberry preserves, tar, and fragrant soil, with a touch of cinnamon stick. The light to medium-bodied palate has an enticing silkiness to the texture with great tension framing the delicate red berry flavors, finishing long and perfumed. The blend is 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc.

Complex nose (cedar, pencil box, spices). Superb structure, admirable lushness. Finishes with a burst of fresh mint.

Logo on the cork: inverted T (Trescases) Intense color with slight evolution. Intense, fruity, and perfumed nose. Less sophisticated than 2000 and 2010. Lovely melt-in-the-mouth entry, supple, and once again the wine unfolds with pronounced aromatics, juicy, complex in its ripe-fruit profile. It finishes long, sappy, and impossible to spit, with a delightful hedonistic note.

Production: 235,000 bottles. What I like so much about the Margaux 1996 is its purity, the aromas of small berries, and that gentle floral touch that gives it spice. The wine is so well balanced that one might even underestimate it. The ’94 always had somewhat firm tannins. The ’95 is round and full-bodied; the ’96 could certainly be described as a Margaux classic. A great Cabernet year. Blend for the 1996 vintage: 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot. Barrel sample (19/20): classic Margaux bouquet, a play of red and blue berries, fine woods, very multi-layered, ripe, distinguished. On the palate, full of finesse, superbly balanced, almost dancing, with silky extract, balanced astringency, very long with an aromatic, almost perfumed fruit aftertaste. A long-lived, great Premier Grand Cru of the feminine kind. Re-tasted during the 1997 en primeur tastings: spicy-sweet noble wood bouquet, showing—without wanting to diminish it—a certain Sangiovese affinity, very complex. On the palate, meaty, black pepper, lots of cassis and blackberries; the structure currently seems very compressed due to reduction, but it radiates tremendous potential. 00: Extremely dense purple, saturated at the core, violet highlights at the rim. Expansive, perfumed mulberry bouquet, with caramel behind, ripe plums, dried-fruit note and rosewood aromas; despite its closed state, it already seems surprisingly accessible on the nose. On the palate, enormously juicy, with a palate-filling astringency, ripe yet present tannins so laced with aromas that they give the wine a powerful and extremely long finish. Clearly the most outstanding, by far the superior wine of the Margaux appellation (19/20)! 02: The deepest color compared to its rivals; dense, rich purple with blackish reflections. Smoky, deep terroir bouquet, dark wild berries, dark chocolate, rosewood note, noble through and through with a lofty, perfumed wine scent. Textured, concentrated palate, comprehensive astringency, clear, ripe Cabernet spice and black-peppery Petit Verdot; the muscles are wrapped with flesh, the flesh with fat. A great, high-standing classic with a potential more promising than the perpetually pampered ’90. In its best drinking phase, the maximum score may even be in reach (19/20). A magnum at Nina and Edi’s in Remscheid, just before Christmas 2005: dark purple with first maturity at the rim. Red-berry nose, currants, fine toasty notes, fruit tea, currants, showing peppery contours. Fine, elegant palate; the acidity still seems a bit dominant over the medium-slim extract, still young and unfinished, but should overall show a bit more sweetness in the body. Needs a good 4 more years to reach drinking maturity and will only then truly show where the journey goes. (19/20). 06: Very dark, deep wine-red with garnet reflections, still with lilac traces at the rim. Grand, moving Cabernet terroir bouquet, showing cassis and plum tones, with an alluring, apt sweetness broadly resonating alongside. Powerful palate, still young; the tannins clearly demand further bottle age, still green-spicy Cabernet at the core but fitting the wine; not a particularly finessed wine, but one with an acceptable aromatic arrogance. Two hours of decanting. 07: Jörg Studach brought it along and I drank most of it. Still very young, but thanks to the rather fine “Château Margaux tannins” and above all its mulberry sweetness and ripe red-cherry tones in the extract, already brilliant. 08: Medium-dark purple. Spicy, young bouquet that is very tight yet deep, clear, direct Cabernet Sauvignon expression, truffle notes, teak and cedar touch and especially coffee. On the palate, lots of flesh, balanced yet still demanding astringency, perhaps currently showing almost more grandeur than the finer ’95. This wine harbors immense potential and needs at least 5 more years to reach its first great drinking maturity. Thanks to its brilliant inner sweetness, a certain pleasure is already present today. (19/20). 11: Bright, dark ruby-purple. The nose is almost tender, morello cherry notes, ripe cherries, light café au lait, delicate and somehow soft-spoken, showing an almost perfumed delicacy with wax notes and mulberries on the second approach. On the palate, as it should be: silky, fine and sweet. This is a dancing Margaux in the style of 1985, 1999 and 2001. Endless facets, all in the fresh red-berry range, with extreme length. It would also shine in a Burgundy glass—perhaps even better. Overall incredibly fresh and young from its still compressed primary fruit. 11: In Engelberg, at first it simply had no desire to be drunk yet. The Cabernet was quite meaty, wild and still breaking out, like a young class stallion. Then came smoke and fine rumtopf aromas from the warm-sweet fruit underneath; it then kept gaining in aromatics, opening more and more a dramatic procession of mulberries. Should one already begin? I would tend to wait. Because in 10 years, a potential wine of the century is taking shape here. (19/20). 16: Saturated, dark purple. The bouquet is spicy and peppery and, with its cedar touch, shows a certain Saint-Julien affinity; still too young at first, but already a bit more accessible than the 1995, which stood next to it in the glass. With air, more and more fruit notes emerge. On the palate, textured, showing a great, promising astringency. The tannins have plenty of finesse and the potential—at very good balance—is guaranteed for decades. (19/20). 16: In a blind tasting in Faugères, it pleased above all with its herbal notes. (19/20). 17: Saturated purple. The bouquet is very intense and smells of a variety of dark fine woods, gorgeous mocha, lots of cedar and light tobacco. It comes across as quite communicative and peppery. On the palate, still strict, dense and demanding; the astringency shows not only at the back of the throat but also on the tongue. A demanding, strict wine with immense potential. Still far from its first drinking maturity. Even longer decanting doesn’t help. (19/20). 22: Magnum. Brightening wine-red with the first, age-typical tones of maturity. Already quite accessible bouquet; deer leather, game meat, light tobacco, traces of raisins and fine woods. Very multi-layered, almost perfumed, and clearly showing its origin. On the palate, beautifully balanced, the remaining fruit with red and blue berries. When slurped, it shows the wonderful Margaux perfume. Long, regal finish. This fantastic Château Margaux now seems—also in magnum—just at its peak. (19/20).