Anson: Château Marquis de Terme is an estate on the rise

The Sénéclauze family at Château Marquis de Terme get the prize for being the longest-running 100% family owners of a classified estate in the Margaux appellation.

They have been there since 1935, with brothers Pierre-Louis, Jean and Philippe in charge today.

Scroll down to see Jane Anson’s Château Marquis de Terme vertical tasting notes and scores

Their directors are similarly long-standing, with just three during nearly 90 years of the family’s ownership.

Today’s director, Ludovic David, has been with them since 2009 and has overseen a flourishing of an estate that is located on prime Margaux land, right in between Rauzan Ségla and Lascombes. Yet for much of the 1990s and 2000s, Marquis de Terme was in the shadow of some of its neighbours.

It has barely changed in size and shape since it was named an 1855 4th Growth

David studied engineering and oenology in Toulouse before moving to Bordeaux, first working for nine years with Jean-Baptiste Bourotte at Clos du Clocher in Pomerol, and as a buyer for Bourotte’s négociant business Etablissements Audy.

He has since worked at Château Fombrauge with Bernard Magrez, as well as stints in South Africa and California, and has brought a sense of imagination and energy to the winemaking at Marquis du Terme.

I went to visit last month to catch up on changes that I had seen in the glass but not recently in person.

See Best Margaux 2020 wines tasted en primeur

While the estate itself has barely changed in size and shape since it was named an 1855 fourth growth, David describes his approach since 2009 as: ‘I did like Joe Biden and set everything back to zero.’

He changed the vinification methods, pushed the harvest date back by 10 to 15 days and changed the harvesting style, introducing more precise sorting both by hand and by using a Tribaie machine that measures grape density.

In the cellars he changed to a gravity flow winery for filling the vats and moving the wine around. And gradually, between 2010 to 2017, the vats were changed to a triconic (or conical) shape to ensure a more gentle extraction during fermentation.

In 2011 there were 10 of them, and today there are 35, in a mix of steel, cement and oak – along with 600-litre cement eggs. A cold soak is used to keep fruit freshness, with temperatures lowered from 33 to 29 degrees Celsius during fermentation.

Even the ageing methods changed. There were five coopers when David arrived and there are 12 today, but 11 of the suppliers are new, because four of the original five were not retained. The coopers now focus on longer seasoning to encourage more supple oak tannins.

David says of the past, ‘1995 to 2005 was largely about refining work in the cellar, while from 2005 we returned to a greater focus on the vineyard and the terroir.

‘There have been moments of experimentation with 200% new oak, even 300% on occasion. Not something we have taken up of course, but all these trials teach you things. The last decade has been about balance, and enhancing a terroir that always gives freshness and maintains a constant ph.’

What was clear from this tasting is that the depth of flavour, and the consistency of the results, since 2014 is notable, with three 94-point wines – always a sweet-spot score for me – from the 2015 vintage onwards.

This is definitely a classified estate with a renewed sense of energy.

If you are visiting Margaux this summer, it’s also worth noting that Marquis de Terme is opening a restaurant on-site, the only one within an 1855 estate in the appellation.

See Jane Anson’s Château Marquis de Terme vertical tasting notes and scores

Château Marquis de Terme 2020 is an en primeur sample, and has been tasted twice. 

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