1986 Château Margaux

Community Tasting Notes (377) Avg Score: 93.7 points

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  4/14/2024 - ONEFIVE Likes this wine:

  Youthful appearance.
  Nose starts off savory with cedar wood and dried green herbs. With air, espresso, tobacco, and dried red fruit appears.
  Med body, med acid, med+ tannin.
  Big in the mouth with serious tannin.
  I don’t know if this will get better at this point. It’s powerful from a structure perspective but unless the fruit emerges with air, I fret that it may be falling out.
  Try again in another year.

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  4/5/2024 - coremill wrote: 91 Points

  Out of magnum. I suspect this bottle was not perfectly pristine; there was a fair amount of noticeable VA on both the nose and palate that slightly detracted for me. Otherwise, quite classic and lovely aromas of bright blackberries, cedar, violets, and hint of minty pyrazine, with lovely balance between fruit and velvety tannin. Perhaps lacks the intensity and length one might hope for.

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  3/13/2024 - jmoon Likes this wine: 93 Points

  One of those classic confusing old first growth nights . The wine ducked and dived all over the place. Pop and pour was initially successful -gorgeous full noise nose - but then tightened up and then loosened up and then tighten, loosen and so the night went on leaving us both excited and confused by the wine. I’ve never really hit its full strides and I have one bottle left so I’m crossing my fingers.

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  3/12/2024 - dream Likes this wine: 94 Points

  I love the succulent acidity on this wine that keeps it quite vivid. There is plenty of Margaux violet fruit and spice to balance things out and the tannins are slowly ameliorating here although they remain firm and grippy. Quite drinkable now and it keeps improving through the years and should have a long life ahead. It did not have the sweetness or pliancy of the '82 drunk alongside but it has more depth and power. 94+

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  1/25/2024 - ankitmehra Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Opening this bottle to celebrate Burn's Night, the 1986 Château Margaux personified a lot of what I love about Margaux, especially through a lot of the youthful exuberance the wine possesses. Almost immediately, the cigar box dominated nose hits you, accompanied by youthful notes of blackberry, peppercorn, herbs and mild crème de cassis. The palate opens up to display the subtle power that I often associate with Margaux, boasting an upfront dominated by strawberries and iron before the mid-palate brought in pepper, cassis and a hint of truffle. Tertiary notes began to emerge in the finish as cedar wood came in across a grippy finish that showed that the tannins were very much intact on a wine that's going to live a long life.

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