Approaching full maturity, this beautiful sweet Château Margaux has a dense plum/purple colour and a huge, sweet nose of black currants intermixed with licorice, toast, underbrush, and flowers. Medium to full-bodied with supple tannin and a fleshy, juicy, very succulent and multilayered mid-palate, this expansive, velvety wine has entered its plateau of maturity, where it should remain (assuming good storage) for at least another 10-15 years. A very delicious, seductive, and opulent Château Margaux to drink over the next two decades.
Tasted at the Claret Club -85 Dinner at -The Square-. Chateau Margaux remains one of the most compelling, indeed most delicious First Growths. Deeper in colour than its peers, there bouquet is vibrant and vivacious with succulent red fruits, date, a touch of iodine and violets and as before, further aeration reveals those classic pencil lead aromas. The palate is exquisitely balanced, focused and powerful and yet brilliant defined with a sublime talcum finish, a hint of exotic fruit on the finish. Divine. Drink now-2025+ Tasted December 2009.
While not as powerful and concentrated as the 1986, 1983, or 1982, the 1985 Margaux is more charming and, at present, more complex than those more backward vintages. The color is a healthy dark ruby/purple. The seductive nose offers copious quantities of lavishly ripe black berry and cassis fruit intermixed with toasty oak and floral scents. This rich, expansive, and velvety-textured wine has developed more length, and additional flavor dimensions over the last several years. It has always been a remarkably approachable and enjoyable wine, but it appears to be taking on more character and quality than I ever imagined. It is one of the most delicious and seductively opulent Margauxs of the last two decades. I consistently underestimated this wine when young. It gets better every time I re-taste it, which happens with increasing frequency
