Château Poujeaux: Tasting & Drinking
As already explained, Château Poujeaux is located in Moulis-en-Médoc, one of the two communes of the Médoc peninsula where no classed growth properties are to be found. The commune of Grand Poujeaux is where the best properties of Moulis-en-Médoc are located, and many would regard Château Poujeaux and Château Chasse-Spleen as the leaders in this small locality.
As I expounded in my introduction to this profile, the 1997 vintage was particularly impressive at Château Poujeaux. The Theil family did an outstanding job in this very difficult vintage. Perhaps free of the expectations placed upon grander properties, they worked within the confines of the vintage and produced a very good wine in what is largely – despite the words of some – a disappointing year (for the region’s red wines, anyway – the sweet wines were unparalleled). I enjoyed watching this wine come to maturity, and found my last bottle – consumed more than a few years ago now – to be on top form. Tasted blind, I doubt I would have ascribed it to this washout vintage.
Today there are of course other vintages I would choose in preference to that 1997, and my top choices here would be 1996, 2005, 2010, 2016, 2022 and 2025, all of which are strong vintages at Poujeaux. Having said that, many of the intervening vintages have shown well over the years, this being a property which seems to offer good consistency as well as little peaks in quality when the conditions are right. In this vein, I have also really enjoyed Poujeaux in a host of other vintages, including 2004, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2023.
I expect remaining bottles of the 1997 might be tiring now (although I am willing to be proved wrong!), but these other vintages will all age well, and will certainly give much drinking pleasure over many years. Evidence for this comes from my occasional encounters with older bottles, the presence of which indicates the old stocks from the Theil era passed into the hands of the Cuveliers, the estate’s vinous heritage remaining with the property (sometimes, when estates change hands, the vendor keeps all the old vintages – giving them a lifetime of drinking but depriving the property of its memory, always a shame). I thought the 1953 and 1955 vintages were top notch when I encountered them both at 70 years of age (the wine, not me), and while the 1924 vintage was a notch behind when I encountered it, it was still delicious. And at one hundred years of age, no less.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to write off the cellaring potential of the 1997 vintage?
My notes and scores on all these vintages are presented below. (9/3/05, updated 27/7/07, 8/2/08, 25/5/17, 4/9/26)
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