Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Margaux Tasting Notes
Few other wines are really worthy of much discussion in this appellation in 2013. Many show the light and frankly rather dilute nature of the vintage, some are lacking in fruit and substance and interest, and one or two show vegetal flavours suggesting very questionable ripeness of the fruit. None, however, showed any suggestion of rot, all were clean and bright, and so the winemakers involved should at least be congratulated on that.
Although not really in keeping with what I generally expect to find in Margaux, two of the more composed wines in this vintage came from the portfolio of Philippe Porcheron, these being Château Marojallia and its second wine Clos Margalaine. Both had far more convincing depth of fruit on the nose and palate than their more traditional peers. The reason why my scores are not head-and-shoulders above those I have awarded across the rest of the commune is that the fruit in Porcheron’s wines comes accompanied by a huge wall of tannin, which really makes me doubt whether the wine will ever achieve any sort of approachable balance. All the same, kudos to Philippe Percheron and to Jean-Luc Thunevin, who consults here, for at least squeezing some flavour out of the grapes this year. I think I would rather have that, and troublesome tannins, than a wine which tastes quite simply of nothing. I have never encountered wines from cru classé châteaux of such leanness as those I have tasted here, in Margaux in 2013.
