1996 Chateau Margaux 750 ml

What most of us know about Château Margaux only just scratches the surface. The icon of Bordeaux’s Left Bank, it was classified a “First Growth” in 1855, but the Chateau’s impressive rise to fame and glory begins some five centuries earlier, long before its 100-point scores, and light-years before the price of one bottle would climb into quadruple digits. 

“You cannot find the soil of Margaux anywhere else,” Aurelien Valance the Deputy General Manager of Château Margaux told us. Although wines have been made at Margaux for five centuries, the earliest indications of what was grown, how grapes were harvested, and how wine was actually produced was recorded in a book dating back to 1710, by one winemaker who “wanted to write something for the next generation of Margaux winemakers,” Valance said. 

Margaux is unquestionably a special First Growth estate. It was the only Classified Growth to earn a perfect score (20 out of 20) when the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux—which defined the region and is still used today—was published. And uniquely, the appellation of Margaux owes its name to the 12th Century castle Margaux, which employed so many people that a village sprouted up around it, and the village was aptly named in honor of the castle. In France, however, it is illegal to have an appellation named after a winery. There is no Haut-Brion appellation or Lafite appellation. Haut-Brion is in Pessac, while Lafite is in Pauillac. 

“We had to go to court and show that the appellation took the name from the original castle Margaux!” Valance said, laughing almost in disbelief at the fact that if they had lost the argument, Château Margaux could have been forced to change its name.  

One of just five 1st Growth Bordeaux estates, the wines of Château Margaux remain the gold standard and inspiration for winemakers around the globe. Destined for a long and gorgeous evolution in the cellar, the 1996 is a bottle to cherish, and the opportunity to purchase from old vintages is a true rarity. 

A 100-point Robert Parker blockbuster, this ‘96 is the real deal, bursting with the kind of concentration and structure that makes you shake your head in disbelief.