2002 Château Margaux

Community Tasting Notes (88) Avg Score: 92.4 points

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  4/15/2024 - Bordeaux_Jon Likes this wine: 95 Points

  A great Bordeaux and more evidence that 2002 is underrated. Having recently had the 2000 and 2003, this impressed me more. It is certainly more elegant and leaner, but had great aromatics, and a very satisfying palate. Initially there was a lot of oak and it was tannic and short in the finish but over the night, that aerated out, providing a nice finish with some umami notes. This wine is definitely not heavy on fruit and leans more towards oak, cedar, cigar, roasted nuts/coffee, and sweet vanilla, though there is red cherry in there too. For me the set of notes reminds me of a 1990 Montrose or 1982 Latour, older school style, leaner, masculine, but with endlessly soaring aromatic that make it hard to put down.
  
  Although it has some years to go, I'd push to drink now, with a short decant if you just like fast-forwarding to the peak. I'd rather not chance that the fruit and smoothness will expire leaving a more tough and unforgiving wine.

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  2/1/2024 - dcwino wrote: 95 Points

  A small impromptu dinner - 09 Rayas (The Henri, Washington D.C.): Expressive, youthful nose displaying concentrated black fruit, crème de cassis, blackberry jelly, blueberry, espresso bean, with a hint of green that adds complexity, strong lead pencil, light caramel, scorched earth, and crushed rock. The green note and the somewhat straightforward fruit expression remind me of Dunn Howell Mountain or Togni. Excellent concentration, layers upon layers of intense black fruit, unctuous and a bit chunky, bright acidity, earthy minerals, and a long, concentrated black fruit-driven finish with scorched earth at the end. Pretty consistent with the previous bottle, i.e., clearly expressing the rustic but concentrated character of the 02 vintage. This can still improve for a couple more decades, as there is plenty of fruit.

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  8/20/2023 - LB88 wrote: 93 Points

  Perhaps I didn’t prep this! I opens it at the restaurant and decanted. Beautiful balanced tobacco and cigar but just still a bit of harsh tannins present next time open much earlier and double decant this.

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  7/22/2023 - liber Likes this wine: 94 Points

  2nd of 24, opened an hour then decanted 2 hours, perfect cork and level, little changed from July 21 bottle noted in detail here, bouquet most attractive feature, classy and complex, otherwise stubbornly back ward with drying, slightly lumpy tannins, classy of course but needs time to come together properly, significant upside, 30+ years. For now F+ (18).......has similarities with the 86 which still needs time!

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  7/5/2023 - CMJ222 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Tobacco, sandalwood. Prune, menthol, cherry

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