It stands majestically, like an architectural dream come true, at the end of an ancient avenue of plane trees: for wine lovers around the world, Château Margaux is the very embodiment of French viticulture. Yet this idealised image obscures the truly significant role the estate plays in the history of wine and the turbulent times it has endured. Following the death of Paul Pontallier in March 2016, a new chapter has now begun at Château Margaux with Philippe Bascaules.
Obligations born of history
What wonderful views: the vista from the estate towards the Gironde, from the wine press house across the English garden and, of course, along the old royal road, the ‘Chemin royale’, to the château itself. Idyllic scenes straight out of the 18th century. And yet, in some places, one need only turn around to find oneself back in the 21st century, for instance in the new cuverie designed by Norman Foster. For at Château Margaux, past and present are not mutually exclusive, but remain constantly intertwined. Just as the ultra-modern, gleaming chrome wine press hall blends seamlessly from the outside into the architecture of the old farm buildings and echoes the form of traditional southern French market halls.
History can be a burden, even for wine estates. Château Margaux, which developed from a 12th-century fortified complex known as La ‘Mothe de Margaux’ and where wine has been grown since the 15th century, derives a good deal of its authority from this heritage. This applies less to the history of specific events and the often turbulent succession of its owners. There were certainly prominent names among them, and some still enjoy a good reputation in the region. However, Château Margaux has earned its place among the world’s great estates through the wealth of innovations that have shaped the wine world from here.
Avant-garde in the Médoc
This began with the planting of the vineyards between 1572 and 1582 by Pierre de Lestonnac. Bucking the trend towards cereal farming, the then owner systematically bought up plots of land and formed an almost contiguous vineyard estate that would anticipate the later land consolidation in the Médoc. By the end of the 17th century, the estate of Château Margaux had reached 265 hectares, a third of which was planted with vines, a third woodland and a third pasture – almost identical to the proportions today. At this time, a highly successful initiative was launched to produce a wine with a deeper colour and longer life by macerating the grape skins and ageing the wine in small oak barrels, rather than the traditional light and delicate ‘Claret’. When the subsequent owners, the d’Aulède family, inherited half of Château Haut-Brion, they followed its example of labelling the wine with its precise provenance. The first mention of an auction of ‘Margose’ can be found in an issue of the London Gazette from 1705.
It is often forgotten that the estates which, in the 1855 Grand Cru Classé classification, were to be placed at the top of the quality pyramid as Premier Crus, were also historically the first. Thus, at the beginning of the 18th century, four wines dominated the market: those from Château Lafite and Château Latour belonged to the Marquis de Ségur, whilst those from Château Haut-Brion and Château Margaux belonged to the Marquis d’Aulède, whose family had married into the Lestonnac family. Among these ‘quatre premier clarets’, Château Margaux stood at the very top during those years, largely thanks to its estate manager, a certain Berlon, who became the ‘Dom Pérignon of Bordeaux’ through his innovative methods: he cultivated and vinified white and red grapes separately. Reserve wines now contained only red grapes – until then, the addition of 10 per cent white grapes had been considered standard practice; moreover, they were selected from the finest plots.
The practice of standardising the quality of the individual plots through blending was also introduced during these years to meet the wine trade’s demand for consistent quality. This method of winemaking, known as ‘selon les habitudes de Berlon’ – generally understood to mean ‘according to Berlon’s methods’ – was modern in the strict sense, but not quite yet. It was not until the later owner, Joseph de Fumel, in the second half of the 18th century, that viticulture at Château Margaux was reformed to such an extent that the different grape varieties, as well as the quality of the vine cuttings and the age of the vines, were taken into account – a development that was to meet with great acclaim from the wine lover and later President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
An architectural icon
Château Margaux, however, became an icon following the redesign of the château at the beginning of the 19th century. The new owner, the Basque businessman Bertrand Douat, who had purchased the title of Marquis de la Colonilla and showed no interest whatsoever in viticulture, required a ‘befitting’ representation. So he had the old château – which in its layout resembled the Château Beychevelle that still stands today – demolished and replaced with a neoclassical mansion built in just a few years by Louis Combes of Bordeaux, a structure unrivalled throughout the Médoc. A stroke of luck, for Combes had honed his style during a stay of several years in Rome. He summed up his aesthetic programme in the statement that perfection rests on three principles: “unity, simplicity, and appropriateness.” Thus, the modern Château Margaux emerged not merely as a status symbol of a nouveau riche upstart, but as one whose aura of classicism and elegance also conferred an undeniable distinction upon the wine produced within its walls.
The continuity of the managers
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, when Cabernet Sauvignon was gradually becoming the dominant grape variety and the estate was struggling to survive the phylloxera crisis and mildew epidemics, it was not so much the changing owners as the managers and cellar masters who were responsible for maintaining its quality. Under estate director Pierre Moreau, a large part of the vineyards was replanted around 1900 – and because the young vines were producing a high yield, the second wine, which had been produced for a long time, was sold for the first time in 1908 under the name ‘Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux’, twelve years later, this was followed by a separate bottling of the white wine, which had been produced since the 17th century, under the name “Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux”.
In 1921, a consortium finally took over the estate and converted it into a public limited company. From then on, “Château Margaux gained in economic importance what it lost in social prestige” (Nicholas Faith). In 1924, the château largely implemented bottling on the estate, the “Mise en bouteilles au Château”, after the estate, like all others in the region, had almost entirely lost control over the quality of its produce to the négociants. But then came the 1930s, with disastrous vintages and a devastating economic crisis. Many of the achievements, such as estate bottling, had to be abandoned at Château Margaux, and the Société vinicole de Château Margaux was increasingly running out of steam financially.
Crisis and a New Beginning
Yet major crises open up major opportunities. The salesman Fernand Ginestet had founded the wine merchant’s firm “Ginestet & Co.” in 1897 on the legendary Quai de Bacalan in Bordeaux and, following some success, began buying estates such as Château Cos d’Estournel from 1917 onwards. In 1921, he was one of the early co-owners of the consortium that had taken over Château Margaux. But it was not until 1935 that he began gradually increasing his shares in the public limited company, until his family finally became the sole owners of the estate in 1950.
Under the leadership of his son Pierre, the start was initially promising. The vineyards were replanted, excellent plots were exchanged with other estates and, above all, a clearer distinction was once again made between the ‘Grand Vin’ and lesser wines. From 1950 onwards, the entire production of Château Margaux was sold in bottles directly from the château. The subsequent failure, according to Nicholas Faith, author of the authoritative book on Château Margaux, has overshadowed the Ginestet family’s contribution to the estate’s reputation. Hubert Duijker noted: “The Margaux from this period was the pinnacle of finesse; no other Bordeaux matches it in terms of delicacy. It is reminiscent of delicate blossoms, fragile porcelain, soft velvet or the fine sound of the spinet.”
Storm clouds over Château Margaux
However, as early as the 1960s, storm clouds were gathering once more over Château Margaux. The Ginestet family’s occasionally unorthodox marketing methods drew the ire of the competition. When batches from weaker vintages were blended and marketed as non-vintage wine, there was even talk of a scandal. The economic crisis of the 1970s then hit the company with full force. Once again, Château Margaux was put up for sale, and following failed takeover attempts by cognac producer Rémy Martin and the US-based National Distillers, the estate was finally sold in 1977 to Félix Potin, a Parisian chain of grocery stores.
Quel scandale! For its owner was the Greek-born entrepreneur André Mentzelopoulos. What followed – the renaissance of Château Margaux, initiated by him and completed under the leadership of his daughter Corinne and estate manager Paul Pontallier – now forms one of the most outstanding chapters in the history of French viticulture. At considerable expense, entire vineyards were completely replanted and the drainage of specific plots was optimised through the use of special clay pipes. The cellar was modernised, new large wooden vats for the fermentation of red wines were purchased, and the white wine was matured separately in the fully air-conditioned Château Abel-Laurent, which belonged to the estate. The legendary oenologist Professor Émile Peynaud from the University of Bordeaux was now responsible for the sensory evaluation. Thus, not only the ‘Grand Vin’, but also the ‘Pavillon Blanc’ and, through strict selection, the ‘Pavillon Rouge’ experienced a resurgence. The 1978 vintage already marked the breakthrough.
Renaissance of a Premier Cru
André Mentzelopoulos passed away at the end of 1980, and rumours of another sale began to circulate. Unexpectedly, however, his daughter Corinne in particular stepped up to carry on her father’s legacy. The planned underground cellar, the first of its kind in the Médoc, was realised in 1982 at great expense. In 1983, the 27-year-old oenologist Paul Pontallier, who held a doctorate, joined the team. Together, he and Corinne Mentzelopoulos formed a veritable dream team; in 1985, ‘Wine Spectator’ dedicated its cover to the pair and dubbed them the ‘young dynamos of Margaux’. In 1990, Pontallier was appointed estate director. From then on, he relentlessly raised the standards for the individual vintages. From 1997, weaker vintages were sold anonymously as cask wine; from 2009, a third wine, ‘Margaux de Margaux’, was created, intended to be offered in restaurants in selected markets for around 100 euros. The series of legendary wines produced under Pontallier’s direction is too numerous to count on one hand: 1990, 1996, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2010 … 2015 ultimately became his legacy. Paul Pontallier died just before the presentation of the en primeur wines on 28 March 2016.
When you drive through the estate’s various vineyards with Philippe Bascaules, you immediately understand why Corinne Mentzelopoulos chose him as Paul Pontallier’s successor. For one thing, Bascaules stands for continuity, having known Château Margaux since 1990, when he was hired as estate manager to assist Paul Pontallier. It is said that it took Pontallier ten years to understand which plot produced which wine. Bascaules has long since put that time behind him, and so the individual vineyards lie before him like an open book: the somewhat richer, frost-prone plots near the river, as well as the first-class gravelly slopes such as the ‘Puch sem Peyre’ or ‘Cap-de-Haut’, which, like a Burgundian clos, is surrounded by walls that are probably older than the estate itself, and which for many forms the heart of Château Margaux.
Continuity and a new beginning: Philippe Bascaules
But Bascaules, who hails from the neighbouring department of Landes in south-western France and, like Pontallier, trained at the University of Montpellier, views Château Margaux not merely through the eyes of a local. Between 2011 and February 2017, he managed Francis Ford Coppola’s cult winery Inglenook as estate director in Napa Valley [see my report in FINE 3/2016]. The legendary Hollywood director had made Bascaules an offer he couldn’t refuse, despite his deep attachment to Margaux. For both Inglenook and Bascaules, these years were a period of intense learning, a constant questioning of his seemingly sacrosanct knowledge of French wine. “Nothing,” he says today, “can be as dangerous as excessive self-confidence – in every respect.” When Corinne Mentzelopoulos brought him back (though not entirely; the Frenchman retains his post at Inglenook and will be on site for six weeks every year), Bascaules looked at Château Margaux with fresh eyes.
“For us,” he says today, “there are no good or bad soils. Rather, we must ask ourselves: what exactly does each plot contribute to the style of Château Margaux? In doing so, we must analyse more and more to achieve the optimal result: which parameters need to be changed – the planting density, the planting direction, the grape variety? The most important thing, in any case, is to first question all certainties. ” From California, he brought back not only a fundamental openness to new methods, but also a drive for even greater precision to ensure quality. “In the Bordeaux region, tradition counts for so much, but what exactly does this tradition consist of? Are our practices in the vineyard really still the same as they used to be? Nobody has recorded this precisely, so how do we know?” Château Margaux is full of relics from the past: The estate maintains its own herd of cattle to produce manure and employs its own cooper with unique expertise in the craft of wooden barrel-making. Documenting such knowledge is one of Bascaules’ key objectives; traditional methods must be precisely monitored and recorded if they are to survive into the future. This calls for new approaches to organisation and communication.
Towards new horizons
In any case, the framework Château Margaux provides for these challenges could not be better. In 2015, the wine press hall designed by Norman Foster – which had been in the planning stages since 2009 – was inaugurated. Thanks to its modular construction, even more tanks can now be set up for plot-specific fermentation, and white wine ageing has returned to the château. Finally, space has been created for the research and development department, originally designed by Paul Pontallier. And with Alexandra Petit-Mentzelopoulos, Corinne’s daughter – even though she works primarily in London – the next generation of the owner family is present at the estate, now serving as deputy managing director for communications and corporate image. Whether Philippe Bascaules and she will one day shape Château Margaux as Paul Pontallier and Corinne Mentzelopoulos did remains to be seen.
That this gives rise to the greatest hopes becomes clear when one talks to Bascaules about the wine itself. Of course, he is well aware of everything that is traditionally said about Château Margaux: its ‘floating power’ (Andrew Jefford), the powerful yet delicate finesse said to stem from the lean soils, the incomparable grace—often described as feminine—combined with a sensitivity to climatic conditions that was almost diva-like in earlier vintages. For Bascaules, however, the key concept behind a great wine is its texture: only when all the details in a wine are condensed into a perfectly balanced continuum does the wine’s true message reveal itself upon tasting. This texture would not stand in opposition to the palate, but rather merge with it and eventually vanish, becoming, as it were, ethereal like a precious perfume. What an aesthetic counterpoint to all the over-extracted monster wines of the modern wine world!
An aesthetic vision
Philippe Bascaules believes that the estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon in particular corresponds to his ideal, whilst the Merlot belongs more to the stylistic ideal of the late 20th century, which is why its proportion in the Grand Vin is steadily decreasing. The challenge in Margaux, he says, is to imbue elegance with a measure of richness – just as in Napa, richness is imbued with elegance. For he is convinced that greatness always lies in the middle, in balance, not in extremes.
In this, he knows he is in keeping with the estate’s tradition, and whilst he is fully aware, in all modesty, that he stands on the shoulders of giants, his self-assurance also embodies the pinnacle of French winemaking artistry. When asked what has changed for him in his new position, he replies: “People listen to what I have to say.” Thus, Château Margaux is likely to remain the “Kaaba in the Mecca of Bordeaux pilgrims” for the foreseeable future, as the Italian winemaker Paolo de Marchi once put it.
Image rights and copyrights
This article was written following a visit to Château Margaux in February 2018 and was first published in a slightly modified form, with photos by Marco Grundt, in FINE – Das Weinmagazin 2/2018. My tasting notes for Château Margaux wines from 1989 to 2016 can also be found there. All image rights here, with the exception of the portrait of Philippe Bascaules © Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images. My article on the latest developments at Château Margaux can be found here.
