CHATEAU MARGAUX 2008 - Margaux - 1er Grand Cru Classe - France - Red Wine

Country : France
Region : Bordeaux - Margaux
Type : Red
Year : 2008
Volume : 75cl

WINE CRITICS : 97 points Decanter
Outer quote mark This stood out immediately among the five first growth wines for its floral hit right off the first nose. The epitome of elegance, as I found at the 10-year point, but it is now also starting to deepen and layer, with concentrated black fruits balanced by linen-textured tannins, slowing the progress of the fruit through the palate, stretching out the flavours. First suggestions of tobacco and curling woodsmoke, with a mouthwatering finish - so moreish. 1.5% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Just 36% of overall production. (JA) Inner quote mark (2/2021)

97 points Jeb Dunnuck
Outer quote mark One of the wines of the vintage, the 2008 Château Margaux is a beauty and has everything you could want from a wine. A huge nose of cassis, Asian spices, dried flowers, and incense all soar from the glass, and on the palate, it’s medium to full-bodied and pure, with ripe tannins and a great finish. A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot made from an incredibly strict selection (only 36% of the production made it into the top wine), this elegant, regal, incredibly classic Chateau Margaux is thrilling today, but will drink well for another 20-30 years. Inner quote mark (2/2019)

96 points Wine Enthusiast
Outer quote mark Definite richness alongside classic elegance. It's a stylish wine, the fruit integrated into a beautiful structure. It's not all refinement, because there is also a weight to the black plum skin and dark berry character. A wine that will age over many decades. *Cellar Selection* (RV) Inner quote mark (4/2011)

94 points James Suckling
Outer quote mark This is so subtle and refined on the nose with amazing perfumes of rose petal, blueberries and blackberries. Full but very tight and fresh with a lovely length that goes on and on. Starts off slowly with a solid core of fruit, then grows denser and denser. Inner quote mark (12/2010)

94 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Outer quote mark This is a stunning Chateau Margaux, made in a sexy, up-front, elegant style, with deep creme de cassis fruit intermixed with spring flowers, a solid inner core of richness and depth, but again, very sweet tannins as well as striking minerality and elegance. One of the most seductive Chateau Margauxs given its recent bottling, this blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and the rest tiny quantities of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot should drink beautifully for the next 25-30 years. Remarkably, a mere 36% of the entire production was selected for the 2008 Chateau Margaux. (RP) Inner quote mark (5/2011)

94 points Vinous
Outer quote mark The 2008 Château Margaux has an attractive bouquet of mulberry, red plum, briary, a hint of rose petal rather than its signature note of violets. It gains intensity with aeration, but to my surprise it feels quite forward for a 10-year old First Growth. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, quite Pauillac in style thanks to that graphite seam that surfaces towards the finish. It is a precise, classic Château Margaux that really delivers its intensity in the final quarter. (NM) Inner quote mark (2/2018)

93 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
Outer quote mark Deep ruby. Complex nose melds blackberry, minerals, bitter chocolate, graphite and violet. Suave and deep on entry, then fresh and alive in the middle palate, with compelling sweetness and intensity to the black cherry, smoky mineral and tobacco flavors. The smooth finish is long, intense and irresistible. At once serious and sexy. (ST) 93+ Inner quote mark (8/2011)

91 points Wine Spectator
Outer quote mark Shows a lightly sinewy edge, with coiled notes of damson plum, red currant preserves, rooibos tea, singed balsa wood and iron, lacking the vintage's typical crisp edge. The fine-grained finish is approachable already, but this will age gracefully and should develop a more perfumed than rich profile. (JM) Inner quote mark (11/2014)

ABOUT HISTORY & WINERY : 1855 THE OFFICIAL CLASSIFICATION  : Empereur Napoléon III paid an important service to the great red wines of the Médoc by organising in Paris, in 1855, the Second Universal Exhibition. It was an occasion for him to glorify French products, among which were the prestigious Médoc wines.
He wanted the wines to be presented in the form of a classification. A blind tasting was organised in Paris which led to this official classification of 1855. It divided about sixty Médoc growths, and a property in the Graves, into five quality levels.

Four growths were classified “Premier Grand Cru Classé”; only Margaux was marked twenty out of twenty. This classification, which maintains its validity today, confirmed the qualitative hierarchy illustrated by the great price differences that had been practiced on the world market for a long time. In the XVIII century, the “first growths” were already being sold at twice the price of the “second growths”. Moreover, the 1855 classification succeeded over other more informal classification attempts like that of Thomas Jefferson in the XVIII century. Under the Second Empire, there’s little to say other than Bordeaux experienced a truly golden age, thanks to the building of a railway to Paris, but also thanks to the rapid expansion of commerce, facilitated by the agreements of free exchange inspired by the liberal ideas of the Emperor. It’s certain that Napoléon III had a lot to do with the upturn of Bordeaux viticulture.

TWO CENTURIES OF ARCHITECTURE IN TRIBUTE TO A GREAT WINE  : Château Margaux’s history and renown stem equally from the intrinsic genius of the place as from the contributions made by the various people who have served it for five centuries. But there has probably not been an owner who has played such a decisive role, in such a short time, as André Mentzelopoulos, who purchased the Estate in 1977 and who would have been 100 years old today.
200 years ago, the Marquis de la Colonilla made his mark on the Estate through the construction, in honour of the wine, of a great architectural legacy inspired by Ancient Greece. The architect Louis Combes designed the Château’s peristyle as a tribute to the Parthenon – my father felt so much pride and joy at the sight of these Ionic columns which reminded him of his beloved Greece. Over 160 years later, my father in turn took the necessary steps to reclaim, in barely three years, the prestige that Château Margaux had lost during the long crisis that had struck Bordeaux’s wines.

TODAY : At the beginning of the XXI century, Bordeaux wines are experiencing unprecedented success. The whole world seems to have their eyes riveted on Bordeaux, where the demand for these great wines never stops growing. This prosperity, as well as the rapid expansion of other regions in the world, has placed Château Margaux in a more competitive climate, and also allowed the underlining of its unique position: that of a First Growth classified in 1855, enjoying a terroir that has been shaped by the passing centuries.

But there is no room for it to rest on its laurels – it would be tedious to enumerate all the investments carried out in the property since 1977. It’s about being at the top of its inheritance, but never ceasing to question in order to improve and perfect that which can still be done, in acknowledgement of the heritage of Château Margaux.

The commercialisation, in 2013, of a third wine in order to improve further the quality of our first and second wines, the numerous trials that have been carried out over the last ten years, by our Research and Development department, in particular the observation of the response of the vines and the wine to biodynamics, and the establishment of an authentication system for our bottles are all examples of recent progress, worthy of the history of Château Margaux whilst ceaselessly progressing so as never to disappoint the enthusiasts of the whole world.

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INTERVIEW by JAMES SUCKLING