2000 Château Margaux

Community Tasting Notes (186) Avg Score: 97.1 points

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  12/15/2023 - Ibetian wrote:

  Bought EP and properly stored. Decanted about 4 1/2 hours before dinner. Cork perfect. The air helped versus prior bottles. Nice nose of red fruit. Still quite youthful, no secondary characteristics yet.
  
  The air soothed rough edges on the palate. Nice finish.
  
  I still think the top 2000s would benefit from 3-5+ more years in the cellar. But they are enjoyable now with enough air.

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  12/6/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Epic Margaux from the 2000 vintage, this is a blend of 90% Cab with 10% Merlot. Intense, muscular even and yet beautifully balanced and elegant.
  
  Appearance: Medium to dark red with a slightly browning at the rim of perhaps 2mm.
  Nose: Can only be described as a perfume! Lavender with plums, and the richest cedar and tobacco. Back-end with earth and mysterious smoke too.
  
  Mouthfeel: Rich and opulent, yet has this luscious softness.
  Palate: Medium-full bodied, with complex layers and yet that Cab backbone still clearly holds it all together. Concentrated cassis and blackberry notes, that intoxicating cedar with rich plums at the mid-palate too.
  
  Tannins: Rounded and balanced.
  Acidity: Medium+ with such purity.
  Finish: Mouthcoating and silky, complex layers of fruit, lingering cigar box and easily clocked at between 40-50 seconds long!
  
  Keeps getting better as I let it evolve over our 3 hour dinner. This time it was decanted barely 2 hours, whilst the last time we had this in HK, we started decanting this in the afternoon for dinner service!
  
  I have to say the biggest difference I found between my May experience and today's was today's muscularity, compared with more florality six months ago. This is certainly a Margaux which will unveil more in the decades to come.
  
  The legendary and brilliant 2000 vintage is best described as:
  Winter was mild.. Then came a warm, wet spring which may have caused a fleeting problem with mildew.
  From July onwards, a spectacular summer dominated with hardly any rain until mid-September when the heavens opened.
  Sunny weather then returned for the October harvest only broken by a single day of rain, a boon to parched vines!
  
  The resulting wines from 2000 were rich and ripe with great structure, depth, complexity and tannin. The Médoc was arguably the most successful, especially in Margaux, St Julien and Pauillac.
  
  Chateau-margaux.com revealed that the grapes in this vintage were very concentrated, and perhaps the most concentrated ever especially for the Cabs.
  Previous historic levels were surpassed, including 1986 and 1995 vintages.
  
  They described this cuvee as elegance and softness on the palate, reminiscent also of the 1990 and 1996 vintages.
  It seemed, in fact, that 2000 was setting a new benchmark in quality never before attained, at least in terms of style.
  
  April and May were warm and rainy, an early encouragement to downy mildew which was halted by the very dry summer.
  The absence of rain in August and at the beginning of September was very beneficial for the ripening process and the concentration in the grapes. A few light showers at the beginning of the harvest could not spoil this dream vintage.
  
  Bottling took place in November 2002, after over 2 years of barrel ageing. Such a long ageing is unusual but not as rare as one might think: most of the greatest vintages are aged for that length of time.
  
  Hard to imagine a more celebrated vintage, or Chateau Margaux.
  Here’s what the critics said:
  Jane Anson, Decanter: 100
  Jeb Dunnuck: 100
  James Suckling: 100
  Jeff Leve, Wine Cellar Insider: 100 (On three occasions, over 2019-22)
  Neal Martin, Wine Advocate: 99
  Neal Martin, Vinous: 99
  
  Clearly the success of the partnership between owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos and director Paul Pontantallier. The Chateau is once again delivering some of the most memorable wines of the turn of the century years in Bordeaux!
  
  The wine-makers described this as, "A wine built for eternity". I have to agree!
  
  I really have to pinch myself.. 13th Bordeaux this Bordecembre, and its only 8 days into this month. And... my 2nd chance enjoying this epic vintage Margaux, first in HK back in May this year, and now again. Thank you brother TC!
  
  6th Dec 2023
  La Sense at Farm to Plate, Damansara, Malaysia

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  11/23/2023 - Ibetian wrote:

  Decanted about 3 hours before dinner then poured back into the bottle and left open for another two hours.
  
  This is a fine wine and we enjoyed it very much with Thanksgiving dinner. But like all the top wines of 2000 I’ve drunk, this still seems at age 23 to be holding something back.

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  10/11/2023 - hprphf wrote: 96 Points

  Consistent, very fine tannin, supple, smooth, mouthwatering in the back. 96+

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  6/8/2023 - MC2 Wines wrote:

  Wine Workshop: Chateau Margaux (Gabriel Kreuther): The year that sent Bordeaux skyrocketing and yet I don’t think any of us quite know what this vintage will be in the long run. At the moment it’s more classically styled and darker and brooding but without any of the full range that I want to see in an amazing wine. Young. Give it more time.

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