Chateau Margaux Margaux, France, 1995, 375ml

Magnum rarities tasting hosted by a merchant and collector. The headline line-up of the main event featured 18 aged red wines from magnum which was preceded by warm-up tasting of a dozen aged reds. The highlights across both days were Chris Ringland 1998 (99), Montrose 1990 and Yquem 1948 (both 98). Also strong were Palmer 1989 (97), Cheval Blanc 1985 (97) and Léoville Poyferré 1990 (96). None of the wines were decanted prior to serving.

Tasting note:
Ripe and concentrated fruit, some aging notes, but otherwise limited complexity and couldn’t compete with the peers in terms of precision, especially when contrasted with the Cheval Blanc 1995. Slightly unbalanced palate with a pretty severe acidity overhang and you are also left with lots of mouth-coating tannin. Judging by this I think this will definitely be more ready in 5-10 years’ time, but not entirely sure if it will also be better… This sounds harsh and I should add that by itself this was an absolutely fine wine, but against the competition present clearly falling behind. – SIRPAT00, cellartracker.com, July 2021