CellarTracker!™

Search: (advanced)


External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher

Vintages
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
Show more

From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
  Home | All Cellars | Tasting Notes | Reports | UsersHelp | Member Sign In 
  >> USE THE NEW CELLARTRACKER <<


 Vintage1988 Label 1 of 140 
TypeRed
ProducerPavillon Rouge du Château Margaux (web)
VarietyRed Bordeaux Blend
Designationn/a
Vineyardn/a
CountryFrance
RegionBordeaux
SubRegionMédoc
AppellationMargaux

Drinking Windows and Values
Drinking window: Drink between 1996 and 2008 (based on 619 user opinions)
Wine Market Journal quarterly auction price: See Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux on the Wine Market Journal.

Community Tasting History

Community Tasting Notes (average 90.2 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 7 notes) - hiding notes with no text

 Tasted by Dundee overlook on 12/29/2016 & rated 85 points: Decanted and began pouring 1 hour later. Wine on shoulder and cork was saturated. Much to my surprise, the wine had a beautiful color and nose was quite complex, but dominated by leather and some pencil lead with dried red fruits. Finish was fairly long on the palate, wine reminded me of an old napa Cabernet with some additional complexity and early elements (3968 views)
 Tasted by emzee.mc on 1/13/2015 & rated 89 points: The wine pours a ruby, tawny color with very long legs. Surprisingly for a wine this age, there is minimal bricking at the edges. The first thing that comes to mind is the concentration of the bouquet. On the nose is a focused, powerful yet elegant melange of soy sauce, floral notes, strawberries, truffles and burnished leather and sous bois. Great extraction. On the palate, the wine is unctuous and thick with a mineral backbone. The sharpness of alcohol and rustic tannins are still there. Definitely old school Bordeaux style. Flavors of soy sauce, preserved plums, kirsch, mint, blackberries and mushrooms come to the fore. Finish is of medium length, lasting around twenty seconds or so. The ending is quite complex with a tad of fat. I was surprised to find how clunky this wine seems to be despite the pedigree. In fact, it tastes more like an old and thoroughly extracted Napa cabernet rather than the second wine of a premier cru. Nevertheless, a pleasurable drink but the balance could have been better. Just shy of 90 as a result. (5280 views)
 Tasted by SimonG on 11/22/2011: Ch Palmer @ Medlar (The Medlar, London): Blind. Quite a ripe, polished nose. Again, polished across the front end and mid palate but with good acidity through the finish. far more claret like on the back end and less alcohol than I'd anticipated from the nose. Claret. Not in the same class as the Palmers on this showing. *** (the 90 at the last Palmer bash in Spring 2007 was in a different league and put many of the Palmers to shame) (8806 views)
 Tasted by Rupert on 11/22/2011 & rated 88 points: A Palmer Vertical 1966-1999 (Medlar, Chelsea, London): A blind ringer for fun. I was way off thinking it young and new world, with its ripe fruit, vanilla oak. Amazingly youthful, but simple (9229 views)
 Tasted by JesperR on 9/6/2010 & rated 91 points: Auctionbottle served at tasting. Still dark red, oozing with dark red berries, blueberry and scented perfume. Slight touch of cedarwood on the nose, but only slight. Somewhat one-dimensional in the mouth, but quite long. Very charming. (8357 views)
 Tasted by BenSlivka on 1/5/2008 & rated 87 points: I purchased this wine in 7/1991 (I assume soon after release) for $28 and it was in my cellar the entire time.
The exterior of the cork smelled incredibly corked (TCA), but I cleaned that off, the cork was in great shape, and I didn't notice a problem with the wine.
It had a classic Bordeaux nose and was tight at the start. It opened up after about 30 minutes, and was a passable wine.
But after an hour it started fading. I probably should have drunk it only a few years after release. (5723 views)

Professional 'Channels'
By Chris Kissack
Winedoctor, May 2000
(Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux Margaux) Subscribe to see review text.
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Winedoctor. (manage subscription channels)

CellarTracker Wiki Articles (login to edit | view all articles)

Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux

Producer website
Read more about Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux
<br><br>This is the second wine of Château Margaux

Red Bordeaux Blend

Red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.

Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.

France

Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)

Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings

2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.com

Bordeaux

Bordeaux Wine Guide

Vins Bordeaux (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux)

History of Bordeaux

History of 1855 Bordeaux Classification

"2009 is all about ripeness, with wines impressively packed with ripe fruit and high alcohol levels. They are showy, in-your-face, and full of pleasure. The 2010s have the fruit and alcohol levels of the 2009s, but with a compelling freshness on the finish that balances the fruit and provides a perfect sense of structure." - Ben Nelson

"2016 is a landmark vintage in certain spots of Bordeaux and it should be remembered as one of the most inspired campaigns of the last 40-50+ years." -Jon Rimmerman
"The quality of red Bordeaux in 2016 was universally lauded – although the response to the en primeur campaign was muted. Quantity was high too, with the equivalent of 770 million bottles of wine produced. An exceptionally dry summer with cool nights eventually, thanks to mid September rain, resulted in small, thick-skinned, ripe grapes, and the wines are marked by high tannin and acidity, with superb aromatic fragrance." - Jancis Robinson

"2017 was complicated, but there are some excellent wines. Expect plenty of freshness and drinkability from wines that will offer excellent value, and others that will rival 2016 in terms of ripeness and ageability. But they are likely to be the exception not the rule, making careful selection key." - Jane Anson

"In the past, a vintage such as 2022 may have been overripe, raisined and low in acidity but 2022 had a sneaky little reservoir in its back pocket - a near perfect marriage of cool/cold/rain the previous winter and the previous vintage that literally soaked the soils (a key to why 2022 is not 2003...or 1893)." - Jon Rimmerman

Médoc

Vins du Médoc (Conseil des Vins du Médoc) - Read More about the Medoc

VdB

The eight precisely defined appellations of the whole of the Médoc (from Blanquefort Brook to the north of the Bordeaux built-up area, almost to the Pointe de Grave) may claim the Médoc appellation. But there is also a specific territory in the north of the peninsula which produces exclusively wines with this appellation. In the great majority, the Médocs come from the north of the peninsula. The great individuality of this region is that the number of vines has increased more recently here than elsewhere, apart from a few isolated spots where vines have grown for many years. Today, the size of the small estate has brought about the development of a powerful co-operative movement. Four co-operatives out of five belong to the group called Unimédoc which ensures aging, bottling and marketing a large proportion of their wines.

Margaux

Read more about Margaux and its wines As with a large part of the Bordeaux vineyards, vines first appeared in Margaux during the Gallo-Roman period.
In 1705 a text mentions Château Margaux . But we have to wait for the end of the eighteenth century and the coming of the earliest techniques in aging for the concept of wines of high quality to develop. The confirmation of this was the famous 1855 classification which recognized 21 Crus Classés in the Margaux appellation. One hundred years later, the Viticultural Federation and the Margaux appellation of controlled origin were born. The appellation, which stretches out over five communes, is actually unique in the Médoc in that it is the only one to contain all the range of wines, as rich as they are vast, from First Great Cru Classé to the Fifths, not forgetting its famous Crus Bourgeois and its Crus Artisans.

In Margaux there is a predominance of Garonne gravel on a central plateau of about 4 miles in length and one and a quarter wide. To the east-south-east, it overlooks the low lying land by the estuary. Its east side is marked by gentle, dry valleys and a succession of ridges.The layer of gravel in Margaux was spread out by a former Garonne in the early Quaternary. Rather large in size, it is mingled with shingle of average dimension and represents the finest ensemble of Günz gravel in the Haut-Médoc. It is on this ancient layer on a Tertiary terrace of limestone or clayey marl that the best Médoc crus lie. All the conditions for successful wine are present : a large amount of gravel and pebbles, poor soil which cannot retain water and deep rooted vines.

It is customary to say that Margaux wines are the "most feminine" in the Médoc, thus stressing their delicacy, suppleness and their fruity, elegant aromas. This does not affect their great propensity for aging; just the opposite, for the relatively thin terroir imparts tannins which give them long life. The other characteristic of these wines which combine an elegant vitality, subtlety and consistency, is their diversity and personality. Over and above the flavour which is their "common denominator", they present an exceptional palette of bouquets, fruity flavours which show up differently from one château to another.

Production conditions (Decree dated August 10 1954)
In order to have the right to the Margaux appellation of controlled origin, red wines must:

- come from the commune of Margaux, Cantenac, Soussans, Arsac and Labarde, "excluding the land which by the nature of its soil or because of its situation, is unfit to produce wine of this appellation".
- satisfy precise production conditions: grape-varieties (Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet-Franc, Carmenère, Merlot Noir, Petit Verdot, Cot or Malbec), minimum of sugar (178 grammes - 6.27 oz. - per litre of must) degree (an acquired 10°5) base yield (45 hectolitres per hectare).

Vins de Bordeaux:
Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Merlot
Soil: Gravel and silt plateau on a layer of limestone or silt on clay
Surface Area: 1,530 ha

 
© 2003-24 CellarTracker! LLC. All rights reserved. "CellarTracker!" is a trademark of CellarTracker! LLC. No part of this website may be used, reproduced or distributed without the prior written permission of CellarTracker! LLC. (Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.) - Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook