Chateau Margaux 2025

More dense and yet more soft than the Pavillon Rouge, fully anchored in place and yet rising through the palate, with rose petals, pomegranate, cassis and damson fruits, so juicy and full of character, slate and crushed rocks, peony and iris, with volume that is expansive and striking. These guys held on to harvest after the rains and have been rewarded for it - can't have been easy as everyone was picking around them, but this was a great decision that shows just what was capable in this vintage. 22hl/ha yield across the vineyard, harvest September 8 for young Merlot, then Cabernet Sauvignon began September 19 and finished September 29. 14% press wine, so a little less than usual because of the natural concentration. 22hl/ha yield across the vineyard, IPT81,3.76ph. 37% 1st wine. I dont give 100 points En Primeur, but if I did, this would get it. It's a slam dunk.

• Name des Kritikers: Jane Anson

The vast array of floral aromas doesn't require a single swirl before you're ensconced in their bouquet. Black cherries, cocoa, exotic spices, currants, espresso, and blackberries follow aromatically. On the palate, length, width, and depth are present in spades. The concentration is intense, yet the wine feels almost weightless on your palate. The fruits, with an almost racy quality, paired with sweetness, energy, and length, hit all the right notes. Balanced between cerebral and opulent, this is a great vintage of Chateau Margaux. The hallmark of the vintage is the fruit's ability to provide ripeness with density. The wine blends 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. 13.8% ABV. 3.72 pH, 14% press wine. Yields were only 22 hectoliters per hectare. Picking took place September 8 - September 29. Drink from 2032-2075.

• Trinkreife: 2032 - 2075
• Name des Kritikers: Jeff Leve

A blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2025 Château Margaux is a deep, authoritative wine that represents some 37% of the estate's production this year. Unwinding in the glass with notes of dark berries, violets, lilac and pencil shavings, framed by a deft touch of new oak, it's medium- to full-bodied, dense and layered, with a concentrated core of fruit framed by sweet, powdery tannins and lively acids. This will certainly require some patience, but it is a prodigious Château Margaux in the making. It checks in at 13.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.72.

• Name des Kritikers: William Kelley

The texture of this wine is exceptional, with black currant, dark plum, chocolate and orange blossom aromas. Full-bodied with round and creamy tannins that fill the mouth and give a caressing texture. Very long and seductive. Gentle at the end. It's lush, velvety and luxurious. 89% cabernet sauvignon, 6% merlot, 4% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot.

• Name des Kritikers: James Suckling

Intense and deep nose, full bodied, round and creamy wine with lots of blackberry-infused elegant fruit and a fine layer of cassis underneath. This is a fine, fresh and juicy vintage of Château Margaux and a wine that will provide nice drinking early on. Very smooth, very soft and very velvety with lots of cassis filled fruit and well integrated tannins. Also this vintage has a higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon than before as that grape nowadays reaches full maturity due to the climate changes. This means that the chateau does not need so much Merlot in the blend to even out any harsh or green cabernet

• Name des Kritikers: Ivar Bjurner

The 2025 Château Margaux is shaping up to be one of the wines of this young vintage. Dark and layered, almost mysterious in bearing, the 2025 is going to have a lot to say over the coming decades as it grows up. Today, its superb persistence and exceptional balance are the harbingers. Here, too, there's a ton of tannin, but also more than enough fruit and overall density to keep things in balance.

• Trinkreife: 2035 - 2075
• Name des Kritikers: Antonio Galloni

Easily one of the wines of the vintage and clear contender for a 100-point wine that benefited from slightly later picking after the rain with the Cabernets harvested from the 19 September. So floral, what a wonderful bouquet of aromas with wild flowers, medicinal herbs and touches of eucalyptus. Crushed velvet, round and enveloping, so balanced with energy and flair. Juicy and alive, bright with fresh strawberries and cherries and a chalky backbone. Grippy with lovely salinity and focus. Feels incredibly sophisticated, a touch firm but pure and precise with refinement. You can feel the structure – it has concentration but an almost aerial quality that just glides over the tongue. So delicate for so much concentration – really a powerful yet almost understated wine with plenty of Margaux charm, ripe but cool fruit and aromatic purity. So perfect and nothing missing. 37% grand vin (lowest production since 1856 with yields of just 22hl/ha). 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. 3.72pH. 81 IPT.

• Trinkreife: 2034 - 2058
• Name des Kritikers: Georgina Hindle

The 2025 Château Margaux was picked at 22 hl/ha between 10 and 29 September. This year it represents 37% of the total crop, a little down on recent vintages, and was matured in 100% new oak as usual. The first thing that you notice on this Château Margaux is the purity of fruit, a signature of the First Growth but taken to its maximum in this vintage. Perfumed blueberry, crushed violet and iris flower, a touch of iodine and a distant trace of the estuary. Wonderful delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with velvety tannins, fine delineation and poise. There is backbone to this Margaux but it is disguised under the layers of pure blackberry and blueberry fruit, dovetailing into a lightly spiced but very persistent finish. It fans out wonderfully, completing a very alluring wine in the making. This vintage contains 13.8% alcohol.

• Trinkreife: 2035 - 2065
• Name des Kritikers: Neal Martin