2009 Château Margaux

Community Tasting Notes (56) Avg Score: 97.3 points

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  5/16/2024 - dream Likes this wine: 95 Points

  This wine shocked me a bit since I haven't tried it for several years. The nose is amazing but the soft and caressing character that I remember has moved to the background and it's now become more serious and brooding and fairly closed down. However, the material here is fantastic with great depth of dark black fruit and violet perfume with the warmth of the vintage peaking through. The tannins are quite firm at this point and this needs at least another 5-10 years to find itself again but when it does, watch out. 95+

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  3/6/2024 - Cailles wrote: 95 Points

  Margaux Extravaganza: Margaux vs. Palmer vs. Brane over two decades (1996/2009/2015). Given the pedigree of the vintages, particularly for Chateau Margaux, expectations were quite high, but especially the last two vintages didn't live up to past performances (I've previously rated Ch. Margaux up to 100pts, Ch. Margaux 2015 up to 99pts, and Palmer 2009 98pts) at first. There were some overripe aromas that were too prominent and an uncharacteristic imbalance. Of course, Ch. Margaux and Palmer showed remarkable complexity and precision, but the balance was a bit off. Still, these are some good to great wines, especially on day 2 and with more air they got better and better. Ultimately, Ch. Margaux 2015 (96pts) was the winner with its unique aromatic profile, slightly outperforming the 1996 and 2009 vintages, both at 95pts. Brane and Palmer were a notch or two below, with the Palmer 2015 particularly affected by premature oxidation. I don't doubt the potential of these wines, given the many fine examples I had last year, but I wouldn't open them today.
  
  TN: Impressive concentration with loads and loads of ripe dark and red fruit, seductive coffee notes, beautiful minerality, lots of earthy notes and some tobacco. At first it seemed a bit too packed and dense, too heavy but the more air it got, the better it got. On day two it even got more floral, lighter and more airy lifting it to a higher level. This vintage currently needs a lot of air, or better just wait another decade before opening it. This was the weakest bottle of Margaux 2009 I've had so far, all others were close to perfection (and one even at 100pts) but all wines today showed below their pedegree.

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  2/10/2024 - GBFan Likes this wine: 98 Points

  The nose is gorgeous. This is one of those rare wines that you don't even want to drink because then you can't smell it any more. On the palate, no tannin, totally sikly and wonderfully complex. This has the classic Chateau Margaux combination of elegance and power. It will probably be even better in 5-10 years, but even now it is sublime. This is either the best Chateau Margaux I have had or at least it's a tie with the '83 and '53.

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  1/24/2024 - alexbhurst1678 wrote: 92 Points

  Drank w my dad and Carolyn; probably should have decanted more, but out of the gate was beyond underwhelming; finally warmed up after about 30 minutes -- though never really hit its peak; I'm unclear why everyone is so excited about this wine and Margaux in general; I've now had multiple bottles and haven't been blown away by any of them.

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  12/16/2023 - sirpat00 wrote: 94 Points

  Part of a Margaux appellation mini-vertical and horizontal comparing Margaux, Palmer, Brane Cantenac 1996, 2009 and 2015. The 1996 were double-decanted prior to the tasting while some of the 2015 spent time in the decanter. Unsurprisingly, Margaux came in first in all 3 vintages, Palmer in the middle and Brane last, expect in 2015 where I think we might have hit a bad bottle for Palmer. 1996 is coming along beautifully and appears to be in its prime drinking window while 2009 took a steep step down from its 10-years state a few years ago. For now, the 2015 appear to manage the concentration better (although Palmer was disappointing).
  
  Tasting note:
  Rather extracted fruit of black cherry, red cherry and black currant fruit. Sweet and peppery spices. Leather and a shot of black coffee. Sumptuous, sweet palate with lots of tension into the finish and supple tannins. While still easily more than solid, compared to 3-4 years ago this really seems to have fallen off a cliff in terms of elegance and lightness.

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