Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deep, spicy and earthy, but with plenty of cabernet sauvignon cassis aroma and solid tannins giving it a serious structure. It's not the most polished Médoc of the vintage, but there's plenty of concentration and energy driving the long firm finish. Give it more time. Try after 2021.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2009 Rauzan-Ségla shows the style of the vintage perfectly and is a ripe, mouthfilling, sexy Margaux that’s just begging to be drunk. It doesn’t have the sheer density of the 2010 but offers a more weightless, full-bodied, layered style as well as fabulous notes of dark fruits, roasted herbs, graphite, chocolate, and tobacco. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Merlot, it’s going to continue dishing out plenty of pleasure over the coming 20-25 years or more. It’s worth noting that the label here is different due to 2009 being the 350-year anniversary of the estate.
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Wine Enthusiast
A rich and opulent wine, very ripe, packed with luscious blackberry and damson fruit as well as sweet tannins. It is a fruit salad of fruit flavors given structure by a core of dryness. Already a gorgeous wine, but one that will also age.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet colored, the 2007 Rauzan-Ségla is scented of cigar box, baking spices and preserved plums with nuances of pencil shavings, leather and bay leaves. The medium-bodied palate is delicately styled with maturing earth and spice flavors plus a chewy frame, finishing with an herbal lift. The blend this year is 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, harvested between September 21st and October 10th, at an average yield of 43 hectoliters per hectare. It was aged for 18 months in French oak, 60% new. The alcohol is 13.5%.
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Wine Spectator
A very toasty style, with lots of caressing plum sauce, melted licorice and warm fig flavors splayed out over polished, rounded structure. Picks up some grip and tar on the finish, but stays clearly on the modern side, with its noticeable reliance on toast. Best from 2014 through 2026. Tasted twice, with consistent notes.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine's ripeness shows in candied scents of cassis while sandy tannins build the savory side of the flavor. With air, the wine gains luscious richness, a sleek, finely crafted Bordeaux that will need time to show its distinctions.
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.