New Château Margaux MD Aurélien Valance on key challenges and the wine that started it all

Tasting Château Margaux 1996 was a defining moment for Aurélien Valance. ‘I was wine club president at HEC Paris [business school] and luckily Corinne Mentzelopoulos [Margaux CEO & co-owner] accepted my invitation to present wines to the students,’ he recalls.

‘She brought a few wines but the last one was a Château Margaux 1996. After the tasting I went straight to her and said, “I want to work at Château Margaux, please give me an internship”. It was because of this specific wine.’

Twenty-five years on from an internship in 2001, Valance will become the first growth’s MD on 1 December, succeeding Philippe Bascaules, who is retiring but will continue to consult on key winemaking decisions.

‘I can’t say the dream came true, because I didn’t even have the dream,’ quips Valance, who achieved his early-career ambition by becoming Margaux’s commercial director in 2006. He’s been deputy MD, sales and operations, since 2016.

Wine was part of family life growing up. Valance remembers navigating his grandfather’s underground cellar at gatherings. ‘It was difficult to get in there and find bottles – you really had to crawl around. He was paying me five francs to go in there and bring a bottle [out].’

Still, he didn’t envisage working in wine when enrolling at HEC Paris. After joining the wine club, a vertical of Côte de Brouilly [Cru Beaujolais] 'blew my mind' by showing how ageing and climate can impact the same vineyard and grape variety. ‘I became wine club president in my second year.’

Now, he’s part of a new generation at the helm of Margaux. Corinne Mentzelopoulos retired as CEO of Margaux’s holding company around three years ago, passing the reins to her children, and Benjamin Vimal joined as technical and operations director in May 2026.

‘I’m 46 and I’m almost the oldest; Benjamin is 35, Alexis [Leven-Mentzelopoulos, co-owner and CEO] is 33 and so on,’ says Valance. ‘There is a very strong energy.’

Climate change

Honouring the first growth estate’s centuries-old legacy is inevitably a big job, but each generation faces fresh challenges. For Valance, climate change is front-of-mind, particularly after a 2026 growing season marked by drought and record-breaking heat.

‘Climate change will force us to adapt faster than expected,’ he says.

Margaux’s research and development (R&D) department, originally created by late MD Paul Pontallier and holding more than 10,000 trial bottles, is exploring genetic diversity in estate vineyards, as well as additional grape varieties.

As previously reported, trial plantings include Malbec and Carménère, plus Castets (Noir) – the latter now allowed under certain conditions as a variety of interest for adaptation (VIFA).

Castets is one to watch

It’s early days, but Valance says Castets is currently the most promising of these three. ‘What we appreciate about Castets is its low alcohol [content]. For example, this year it was picked at full ripeness at 12% alcohol – quite amazing when you see the vintage conditions.’

He continues: ‘It reminded us of Petit Verdot, because of its spiciness. It has some unique characteristics, [and] the wine has some density. So at such an early stage we think it may be interesting.’

Even if things progress, it would likely only play a walk-on part, perhaps less than 1% of the final blend. Valance likens its potential to ‘salt and pepper’ seasoning on a good meal.

But Cabernet Sauvignon remains key

He remains very confident in Cabernet Sauvignon. ‘Firstly, because I see how the vines are able to adapt. It’s amazing. They react much better now than in 2003 [a famously hot year], for example.

‘Secondly, we can play with rootstocks. Thirdly, you have dozens of Cabernet Sauvignon [variations].’

Rootstock trials are particularly relevant to drought resistance, he says. This winter, the team will replant a plot using six different rootstocks, to be planted in periodic sequence, before conducting small-scale vinifications.

Margaux is also one of several estates exploring genetic diversity in its vineyards.

‘We need to find the right massal selection or clones of Cabernet Sauvignon for its ability to have good phenolic ripeness at the same time as acidity and not too much sugar – meaning alcohol,’ says Valance.

Preserving the estate’s signature in the glass is naturally central. ‘Château Margaux wines are famous for their very floral nose and we don’t want to lose that. So we need to keep this perfume and then the very soft texture that is really part of our DNA. To have this texture, we need perfect phenolic ripeness.’

On the market

Beyond the chȃteau gates, a troubled fine wine market and a tough macroeconomic backdrop present a different kind of challenge.

Valance says it’s important to stay calm and consider the longer-term context of market cycles.

‘Besides the terroir, the most important [thing] to us is reputation.’ Discounting too much or becoming less stringent at the sorting table can harm reputations, he says.

In 2025, 37% of the harvest went to the Château Margaux grand vin – described by Decanter's Georgie Hindle as 'easily one of the wines of the vintage' when tasted en primeur.

Valance says Margaux is committed to Bordeaux en primeur and generally offers 70% to 80% of its new vintage globally. He says the estate will evolve if people lose interest in the system in future, ‘but for the time being I think it works’.

Yet he also takes the long view on stocks, albeit acknowledging Margaux is in a relatively privileged position. ‘What we don’t sell today, we will sell later.’

Through Bordeaux’s La Place network, the estate is seeing interest in older wines. ‘We have good demand on the best 1990s and 2000s vintages, and very good demand on 1980s and 1970s vintages, and even older than that.’

Over the next few weeks, Valance will travel to see markets first-hand, mostly in Asia, with Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos heading to the US.

In January, the team will taste the 2026 vintage. Quality is considered highly promising, but 2026 average yields are again expected to be low, around 24 hectolitres per hectare. That’s up slightly on 2025 (22hl/ha), which saw the smallest amount of grand vin produced since 1856.

Blind tasting tips

And when Valance is not running a first growth? You might find him tuna fishing on the Atlantic coast.

Outside the day job, he's also a French blind tasting champion. His top tips: shut out the noise, and let white wines warm up to reveal their full spectrum of aromas before taking a guess.

Related articles