Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Made by the same team as Giscours, this wine reflects the same attention to detail. Ripe tannins give the wine its firm side while the structure is powerful and dense. Drink this wine from 2024.
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Decanter
Subdued nose, this takes its time in the glass but opens up to show savoury redcurrant and raspberry fruits. An estate that often emphasises texture, minerality and spice over fruit. There is complexity here but the acidity is a touch high.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Château du Tertre is a beauty. Possessing plenty of red, black, and blue fruits, spicy oak, medium body and ripe tannin, it’s going to need short-term cellaring to let the oak integrate but has loads to love. While Margaux didn’t hit the highs of Pauillac in the vintage, there are plenty charming wines from this appellation.
Barrel Sample: 89-91 -
James Suckling
A very aromatic red with spice, mushrooms and berries as well as plums. Medium body. Juicy finish. A blend of 75% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot, 10% cabernet franc and 5% petit verdot. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium garnet-purple colored and composed of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, the 2017 du Tertre gives expressive notes of black berries and cassis with pencil lead, bay leaves and lavender hints. The palate is medium-bodied with a good core of open-knit fruit and plush tannins lifted with great freshness, finishing on a perfumed note.
Barrel Sample: 89-91 -
Wine Spectator
Bright and breezy in feel, with damson plum and bitter cherry fruit laced with light savory and thyme notes. Gently persistent acidity shows on the finish.
Barrel Sample: 88-91
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Silky, seductive and polished are the words that characterize the best wines from Margaux, the most inland appellation of the Médoc on the Left Bank of Bordeaux.
Margaux’s gravel soils are the thinnest of the Médoc, making them most penetrable by vine roots—some reaching down over 23 feet for water. The best sites are said to be on gentle outcrops, or croupes, where more gravel facilitates good drainage.
The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification but it is nonetheless important in regards to history of the area. In 1855 the finest chateaux were deemed on the basis of reputation and trading price—at that time. In 1855, Chateau Margaux achieved first growth status, yet it has been Chateau Palmer (officially third growth from the 1855 classification) that has consistently outperformed others throughout the 20th century.
Chateau Margaux in top vintages is capable of producing red Cabernet Sauvignon based wines described as pure, intense, spell-binding, refined and profound with flavors and aromas of black currant, violets, roses, orange peel, black tea and incense.
Other top producers worthy of noting include Chateau Rauzan-Ségla, Lascombes, Brane-Cantenac, and d’Issan, among others.
The best wines of Margaux combine a deep ruby color with a polished structure, concentration and an unrivaled elegance.