Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
We discovered Paveil de Luze about five years ago and we're glad we did. A great value for a top quality Margaux, this classy 2009 is rich and elegant with great concentration and balance.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
With vineyards located amidst the finest parcels of Chateau Margaux, cru bourgeois La Gurgue offers one of the purest expressions of Margaux terroir in the entire commune. Tasting the 2009 with its dynamic owner Claire Villars was one of the highlights of my recent visit to Bordeaux. The 2009 opens with a pure Margaux bouquet of violets, spring flowers and a hint of vanilla. It rolls over the palate with lush notes of fresh berries, cherries, and spice, and finishes with smooth, fine grained tannins. Quite expressive and utterly graceful.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
We visited this chateau for the second time in the last few years and the quality keeps getting better and better. This 2010 is medium-bodied with flavors of black cherry and plums. An elegant red with a firm backbone, Deyrem Valentin produces a typical Margaux with nice finesse in the finish. A great value in this price range.
-- CW Wine Staff (April 2011)
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
WA 92
This stunning, evolved, dark plum/ruby-hued 2008 reveals aromas of forest floor, sweet black and red currants, licorice and roasted herbs. Classic, elegant and medium to full-bodied, it provides a sexy, complex, intellectual as well as hedonistic turn-on. Drink this delicious Margaux over the next 12-15+ years. This stunning, evolved, dark plum/ruby-hued 2008 reveals aromas of forest floor, sweet black and red currants, licorice and roasted herbs. Classic, elegant and medium to full-bodied, it provides a sexy, complex, intellectual as well as hedonistic turn-on. Drink this delicious Margaux over the next 12-15+ years. -- Robert Parker Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
WS 93
WE 91
WA 94
The greatest Cantenac Brown I have ever tasted, this monumental effort possesses enormous concentration, with loads of black and blue fruits intermixed with damp earth and forest floor. I have never seen a Cantenac Brown so seamless, so powerful, yet at the same time, so elegant and densely complex. They have certainly done something here that has not been accomplished over the last three decades I have been tasting this estate's wines. Opaque purple in color and full-bodied, this big-time sleeper of the vintage merits serious attention for the first time in my professional career. Kudos to the new ownership and team at Cantenac Brown. This wine should evolve over a 30-year period. (Tasted two times.) Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
WS 92
WE 92
WA 94
The 2009, which is inky blue/purple to the rim, is a final blend of 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot at 14% natural alcohol. The wine has a beautiful blueberry-scented nose with hints of acacia flowers, licorice, graphite and some subtle charcoal and background oak. Clearly a modern style of Margaux, it is pure, seamless, full-bodied and opulent, and the high glycerin and silky texture of 2009 are brilliantly displayed in this wine. Drink it over the next 15+ years, although it is certainly capable of lasting well past two decades. One of the more difficult estates to manage in southern Margaux is the 300 acres of Lascombes, subdivided into at least 40 to 50 separate plots, making harvest decisions, ripening, and related issues a strategic nightmare. Nevertheless, they seem to have hit pay dirt frequently over the last decade plus. Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
WS 95
WE 94
WA 92
Actually higher in alcohol than its bigger sister, Chateau Margaux, the 2010 Pavillon Rouge (66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot) hit 14% natural alcohol. Paul Pontallier proclaimed it the best they have ever made, representing only 38% of production. (This wine also undergoes a serious selection.) Plenty of black fruits, violets, forest floor and earth are present in this wonderfully textured, opulent wine, which will provide immediate gratification when it is released in a year. It should drink nicely for up to 15 or more years.Actually higher in alcohol than its bigger sister, Chateau Margaux, the 2010 Pavillon Rouge (66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot) hit 14% natural alcohol. Paul Pontallier proclaimed it the best they have ever made, representing only 38% of production. (This wine also undergoes a serious selection.) Plenty of black fruits, violets, forest floor and earth are present in this wonderfully textured, opulent wine, which will provide immediate gratification when it is released in a year. It should drink nicely for up to 15 or more years. -- Robert Parker Read More
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Margaux
WS 99
WA 99
A brilliant offering from the Mentzelopoulos family, once again their gifted manager, Paul Pontallier, has produced an uncommonly concentrated, powerful 2009 Chateau Margaux made from 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest primarily Merlot with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. As with most Medocs, the alcohol here is actually lower (a modest 13.3%) than most of its siblings-. Abundant blueberry, cassis and acacia flower as well as hints of charcoal and forest floor aromas that are almost Burgundian in their complexity are followed by a wine displaying sweet, well-integrated tannins as well as a certain ethereal lightness despite the wine-s overall size. Rich, round, generous and unusually approachable for such a young Margaux, this 2009 should drink well for 30-35+ years. Read More