Bordeaux 2011 at Two Years: Margaux
Coming after the success of 2010 Bordeaux, when the appellation of Margaux played something of a blinder, a vintage in which seemingly every wine was a ball of vibrant black fruit which somehow seemed to hold on to the lifted, floral aromatics that makes Margaux what it is, perhaps the only way for this appellation to go in the subsequent vintage was down. Of all Bordeaux’s left bank appellations, Margaux seems the most reluctant to do what we expect of it; in other words, it so often disappoints (which is why vintages such as 1983 and 2010, when it over-performs, are such a delight). A complicated vintage such as 2011 is perhaps only going to build on this tendency to disappoint, and this has certainly been my finding, both here tasting the wines at two years, but this was also the case during the primeurs when I tasted from barrel.
All the same, even the most despairing and desolate seas have their tropical islands of delight, and so it is in Margaux. The likely candidates are usually Château Margaux, Château Palmer, Château Rauzan-Ségla and Château d’Issan, and at least one of these – maybe more – has done the business in 2011. You would expect Château Margaux (pictured) to head the list of success stories perhaps, but although I made the very first of my Bordeaux 2011 tasting visits here Paul Pontallier was unwilling to open the 2011 for me. Paul described the 2011 Château Margaux as “a powerful wine“, the richest in tannins in the past one hundred years (the time during which tannin levels have been measured and recorded). For this reason it was unlikely to be an early bottling for this vintage; Paul starts bottling as early as June for a lighter vintage (such as 1992), or as late as November for a great vintage (this was the case for both 2000 and 2005). Usually, though, he bottles during or close to August. With the 2011 vintage they did an experimental bottling in July (not for release but for the Margaux library, for tasting in the future, to see what the effect of an earlier bottling is) but the wine-proper had a final racking followed by immediate bottling in September 2013. For Paul, to open a bottle to taste now was clearly taboo.
