Bernard Magrez launches range of non-traditional limited edition Bordeaux blends

You may not have heard of Bernard Magrez before but if you’re a keen follower of Bordeaux you’ve probably heard of some of the estates he owns across the region, in particular Château Pape Clément in Graves.

Now 90 years old, you’d be right in thinking that multi-millionaire Magrez is very much part of the Bordeaux establishment – ‘old guard’ even.

But his new range of 22 wines, ‘Les Trésors de Bernard Magrez’, throws together vintages and appellations and winemaking techniques in ways that you rarely – if ever – see in Bordeaux; certainly not at classed growth estates.

Have you ever tasted a multi-vintage blend of Château Pape Clément or Château La Tour Carnet? Or classed growths from the right and left banks blended together?

Now you can. The range is, in its way, quietly revolutionary – though stopping short of outright iconoclasm (this is still Bordeaux after all).

But it fulfils its intended brief of offering something genuinely new and different for Bordeaux lovers to try.

Something new

Ranges in Bordeaux tend to be very cast in stone. There is the ‘grand vin’, usually a second label and maybe a third label as well. And then the same again for whites if any are made.

With the exception of a new label to mark a particular vintage or milestone, it’s the same year after year with only the wine within changing.

For Magrez, and his son Philippe, it was clear that collectors and Bordeaux lovers were hankering after something a little different.

‘Bordeaux has long sold the idea of social status,’ Magrez said. ‘Today, people want emotion and discovery, a taste they don’t know, a story they’d like to hear and share.’

Philippe Magrez told Decanter: 'Bordeaux has a great heritage, but it only stays relevant if it remains inventive.

'The danger for Bordeaux is that it no longer represents pleasure. That there is nothing left to discover. [This range is meant to] renew the reasons to desire it.'

The wines

All 22 wines are produced in limited quantities, from 4,000 or so bottles at most to just a few hundred in others.

Although packaged individually and presented with all the pomp of a limited edition, prices range from €30 (Cuvée Amphoria) to €190 (Château Pape Clément cuvée 1252) – although one ultra-rare cuvée is priced at €4,000 (PC4).

‘Only targeting the ultra-luxury segment would have been an error,’ noted Philippe Magrez.

'These are not "icon" wines,' he told Decanter. 'It's more daring.' He added later that simply making 'better' wines isn't the solutuon either.

'Technically perfect isn't more interesting,' he said.

The idea behind each wine is that they subvert the usual ‘unwritten rules’ of Bordeaux: one château’s wine per bottle, one vintage on the label, from one appellation, aged in oak etc.

Instead, therefore, these wines all play with the notions of vintage, vinification and place and 'interrogate' winemaking and terroir in the process.

For example, ‘Cuvée Amphoria’ is a parcel selection at Château Les Grands Chênes aged entirely in sandstone amphorae.

‘Mes 5 Pépites’ is a blend of 2018 wines from Château Pape Clément, Château La Tour Carnet, Château Frombrauge, Château Magrez Frombauge and Château Les Grands Chênes.

Cuvée 1252 and Cuvée 1409 are blends of the 2019 and 2022 vintages at Pape Clément and La Tour Carnet respectively.

Confiance, Emotion, Sérénité and Tempérance are all parcel selections chosen by the viticultural teams at the estates across Haut-Médoc, Médoc, St-Emilion and Pessac-Léognan.

And ‘LGC6’ and ‘LTC5’ represent multi-vintage blends from Les Grands Chênes and La Tour Carnet – 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 for LGC6 and 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2016 for LTC5.

There is also a special edition white wine from Pape Clément, and a special selection Sauternes from Clos Haut-Peyraguey among other cuvées.

The idea is that the range will 'change and evolve' over time, the composition and vintages used in certain blends changing from year-to-year.

Something a little different

This tasting and listening to Bernard and Philippe Magrez talking about their reasoning behind launching this range was surprising on a number of levels.

First of all the wines are good, very good. This wasn't cobbled together as a desperate, last-minute move. The eight wines I was able to try at the launch in Paris were all very solid.

I was particularly taken with the rather striking Reconnaissance blanc from Pape Clément – a selection from only the very best parcels used in the estate's usual top white.

Likewise I thought the Mes 5 Pépites really quite excellent, with a lovely classic whiff of pencil shavings but a beautiful cluster of ripe fruits-of-the-forest on the palate.

And Cuvée 1252 from Pape Clément and LTC5 from La Tour Carnet both really impressed with gorgeously pure aromatics, fresh ripe fruits, wood spices and gravelly wet stones characters.

It was also refreshing to see a range with such a broad range of prices on offer. Yes, there is the one cuvée for a very extravagant price but the majority fall under €100 a bottle.

That might not be everyone's 'Friday night wine' price but for a range aimed at the collector and keen wine drinker willing and able to branch out from time to time, it's well-judged in my opinion.

And the philosophy behind the blends, is refreshing to see from Bordeaux too. It's fun to try wines made with a spirit of experimentation.

Philippe Magrez said that the concept isn't entirely unique but 'it is bigger than other [such] programmes'.

I don't know if this is the sort of move that will ultimately solve all of Bordeaux's problems but perhaps it can be a step in the right direction. Does the world need another second or third label or might the occasional multi-vintage blend or parcel selection from a top site be more to everyone's interest.

Philippe said that everywhere he had been to introduce the wines he had found 'a receptive audience. I never sold a range more easily'.

The wines are available in international markets through Bernard Magrez's partners.

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