Experimental Margaux: To Destem, or not to Destem?
In February 2012 I attended a tasting hosted by Paul Pontallier and Aurélien Valance, the technical director and commercial manager respectively of Château Margaux, and Richard Bampfield who was there to represent co-host Yvon Mau. The purpose of the event was to give the assembled audience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to taste some of the wines made during a remarkable ten years of wine research at Château Margaux (pictured).
In parts one and two I provided some detail on the evolution and ongoing work carried out by Pontallier’s Research and Development Department, as well as an account of the first flight, three wines from the same plot of Cabernet Sauvignon which has, since 2008, been farmed using conventional, organic and biodynamic methods. Here, in this and the subsequent three instalments, I continue my description of the experiments and the wines we tasted, looking at a trial of inclusion of stems with Cabernet Sauvignon during fermentation, as well as different closure types. I am sure these latter experiments, looking at wines bottled under cork and two types of screwcap, one oxygen-permeable and one oxygen-impermeable, were the more among the more eagerly awaited flights of the tasting. Finally we finished up with a look at varietal components of the Château Margaux blend, featuring Cabernet Sauvignon from three different plots as well as – sticking with the ‘experimental’ feel of the tasting – some Petit Verdot from a plot established by Pontallier nearly two decades and which in 2011, for the first time ever, has been included in the blend for the grand vin.
As I noted in my introduction, none of these wines will ever be commercialised so I have refrained from scoring or linking to wine-searcher. To my mind the point of this tasting was to gain some knowledge of the research programme, not to rate the wines as if a buying decision were imminent. Nevertheless I do make clear in each case which wine I preferred, and why, and what the general consensus in the room was.
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