Best Margaux 2024 wines tasted en primeur

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Margaux 2024: The appellation with some of the most exciting, charming and friendly wines of the vintage

Average yield: 33.1hl/ha

Variance from 2023: -13.8% (37.7hl/ha)

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top wines from Margaux 2024

Vintage overview

The 2024 vintage posed problems for all producers, and those in Margaux were no exception, especially given the size and varying terroirs of the appellation. Yet it fared better than many, with plenty of lovely, expressive, and typical characteristics emerging.

The wines offer great aromatic florality, juiciness and a sense of charm.

For Cynthia Capelaere, director of Château du Tertre, the 2024 harvest was the quickest in their history. ‘It was a question of means,’ she said.

‘We had to do a lot of sorting during the harvest to eliminate the millerandage. We lost some Merlot grapes but it was a good way to keep the quality. If there had been a bigger yield, the grapes wouldn’t have had the same concentration’.

Du Tertre ended up with a yield of 40hl/ha, well above the appellation average.

For Thomas Duroux, managing director of Château Palmer, the vintage can be described as ‘modest’ with ‘happy wines’.

Organic viticulture

‘It was not easy, we had a lot of doubt, even at harvest time,’ he said, adding that they sprayed 33 times on their organically-farmed vineyards and had a yield of 22hl/ha after harvesting from 25 September and finishing on 10 October. ‘We took risks but there was no real issue with botrytis.’

Ten percent of the crop was discarded using a vibrating table and optical sorter.

Nearby Château Rauzan-Ségla, also under organic management, had a yield of 30hl/ha. General director Nicolas Audebert said, ‘It was a fight every day – we needed permanent vigilance. There’s some luck in the movement of the rain, but you needed dedication and precision.

The team used a cold room to store a days’ worth of harvested grapes before going into the cellar for the first time in 2024 – it was planned for a long time, but ‘came in handy’ and a ‘further step in precision,’ said Audebert.

Château Margaux carried out a green harvest to eliminate all the bunches of unripe grapes ahead of the harvest and stopped picking each time it rained. ‘The berries were bigger in 2024, so we crushed a bit more to increase the level of extraction and extended the maceration’, general director Philippe Bascaules said.

‘The 2024s are complex and fresh – they’re great as long as you don’t want to make a big wine,’ he added. The estate produced 46% of the top wine – an amount not achieved since 2004 due to such a large percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend at 93%.

For Château Brane Cantenac, owner Henri Lurton made the decision to ‘spray early’ and ‘be ready every day’. ‘It was unusual to have phenolic ripeness (ripe skins) before technological ripeness (ripe juice),’ he said adding that they had to harvest quickly and increase the number of harvesters and those on the sorting tables.

‘I think we made good choices, but it was a bit of luck too’, Lurton added.

Fine tuning

Château Giscours used their cover crops effectively for the tractors to access wet soils for spraying and increased their harvest team to 200 people.

While they didn’t chaptalise the wines, technical manager Jérôme Poisson said blending was more challenging than usual: ‘We focused on finding balance and harmony while enhancing the body.’

The grand vin includes all four grapes; 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot only the second time along with 2022.

Château Angludet chaptalised for the first time since 1989 but didn’t lose any yield to mildew having learned from the pressure in 2018 and subsequently created their own spraying machines.

The wine will be aged 40% in amphora to ‘retain the natural aromatic dimension’ in the wines, said Daisy Sichel, seventh generation member of the Sichel family who are owners of the estate.

For Axel Heinz, ex-Ornellaia winemaker and now the director of Château Lascombes, the 2024 ‘took a lot of energy – it wasn’t the easiest but it was far from a disaster’.

He said that the 2023 vintage allowed them to change direction and change style but that 2024 was ‘closer’ to what they have in mind for the the type of wines they want at Lascombes. ‘2024 is a natural and faithful expression of the vintage,’ Heinz said.

‘We didn’t do more extractions but longer macerations on the Merlot, we couldn’t get much out of extractions because we needed to be careful of the tannins,’ he added.

The estate also debuted the 2024 vintage of a new wine during the en primeur tastings, a 100% Merlot cuvée named La Côte from a specific clay and limestone plot near the Garonne river.

The 2022 vintage was the first trial and will be released later this year – an article delving deeper into this wine will be on Decanter Premium soon.

Standouts

• Château Margaux
• Château Palmer

Highlights

• Château Brane Cantenac
• Château Rauzan-Ségla
• Château Lascombes
• Château Durfort-Vivens
• Château d’Issan
• Château Giscours
• Château Cantenac Brown

Value

• Château du Tertre
• Château Siran
• Château Labégorce

See all Margaux 2024 en primeur wines tasted

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