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Tasting Notes
This is still just a baby, offering currant and berries, with dried flowers that turn to subtle cedar and dried fruits. Structured and full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and supersilky texture. This is so tight and powerful, but still backward. The palate builds and builds, with amazing tannins. A little chewy, this needs years still. You can drink it of course, but a waste now.'89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Best after 25,000 cases made. James Suckling,Wine Spectator 2010
Critic Scores
Average Score
Wine Spectator
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Bright garnet and some development at the rim. Herbaceous sweetness and undergrowth and pepper. Then more meaty. Finishes dry but not drying though there is definitely less flesh in the middle. By contrast it is fresh and persistent. Later: sweetly herbal and more coffee. Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Dwarfed by its younger sibling, the 1990, the 1989 Chateau Margaux has a dark plum/garnet color and a big, sweet nose of new saddle leather, toasty oak, and weedy black cherry and cassis fruit. The wine is medium-bodied, with relatively elevated tannins, outstanding concentration and purity, but a somewhat clipped as well as compressed finish. This certainly outstanding wine has put on a bit of weight in its evolution in the bottle, but it is hardly one of the most profound efforts from Chateau Margaux. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2025. Last tasted, 10/02. Robert Parker, eRobertParker.com
About the producer
Ch. Margaux is one of Bordeaux’s most historic and famous estates. The only classified First Growth in Margaux, it epitomises the appellation’s elegance, while producing wines with fantastic ageing potential.