2003 Château Margaux

Having visited Chateau Margaux after finishing in the northern Medoc, I wondered how this great first growth could be as outstanding as most early tasters were rating it. After all, most chateau owners, at least those in the north, seemed to rank their cabernet ahead of their merlot, and Chateau Margaux has a good 20% merlot planted on the estate. Part of the explanation is that the grand vin at Margaux in 2005 includes just 8% merlot. As estate manager Paul Pontallier explained, leaving out most of the merlot was not really a function of the inherent quality of this variety in 2005. Rather, he said, "when our cabernet sauvignon is outstanding, our merlot sometimes can't fit into the blend." The young 2005 Margaux is one of the greatest young Bordeaux I have yet tasted: with its dominant cabernet component, powerful backbone (15% press wine is in the blend) and record 78 IPT, it's almost Pauillac-like in its expression of cabernet. The density and structure of the wine suggest that it will outlast any adult who buys it now.

I don't yet find quite the density in the 2004 Margaux that estate manager Paul Pontallier does, but there's no arguing with the wine's dark color and lovely aromatic precision. Pontallier told me that 2004 was one of the estate's best vintages for merlot since 1995, but then emphasized that "only cabernet sauvignon makes great wine here." The cabernet sauvignon was harvested here between October 11 and 21. Incidentally, the 2003 Margaux has the highest-ever IPT at this estate (73); just a step behind in total polyphenols have been 2004, 2000, 1995 and 1986, all measuring about 70. Margaux's 2004 white wine is a knockout.

Chateau Margaux has made one of the monumental wines of the vintage-particularly impressive in light of the mixed performance of this appellation in 2003. Estate manager Paul Pontallier considers the 2003 to be the most concentrated wine he's ever made. "We normally seek balance," he told me. "We don't look for overconcentration, which can throw a wine off balance. But the yield in 2003 was just 30 hectoliters per hectare, our lowest in 25 years, except for the frost year of 1991." Still, Pontallier expressed surprise with the way the 2003 is turning out. "I didn't expect the wine to be so classic. I was expecting to find at least traces of the heat, but the wine is pure and fresh." Indeed, the pH of 3.8 and the acidity between 3.2 and 3.3 grams per liter are close to the 20-year average for this great first growth. Incidentally, the index of polyphenols was 75 in 2003, in part due to the estate's ripest cabernet franc ever; the prior record here was 70, reached in 2000, 1995 and 1986.