Serena Whitfield-Cross
Wine Correspondent · April 28, 2026 · 5 min read
Among the five First Growths of Bordeaux, Margaux has always been the most feminine, the most perfumed, the most elusive to describe. The 2015 is its apogee.
The 2015 Bordeaux vintage arrived after a summer of exceptional, measured heat — temperatures high enough to concentrate but not so extreme as to desiccate. The harvest, begun September 17 at Château Margaux, yielded grapes with phenolic maturity and natural acidity in a balance that winemakers dream about and climate rarely provides.
Chief winemaker Philippe Bascaules called it, with understatement characteristic of the estate, "a very complete year."
In the glass, the 2015 Château Margaux is a deep garnet shading to crimson at the edge. The nose opens reluctantly — this is a wine that needs decanting, ideally two hours, before it begins to speak — but when it does, what it says is extraordinary: black cherry, crushed violet, cedar, cigar box, and beneath all of it a quality the French call terroir and for which there is no adequate English translation. The taste of place.
On the palate, the tannins are present but satin-smooth, integrated by time already though the wine is only eleven years old. The finish extends for a measured 70 seconds — I counted — through dark fruit into something drier, mineral, like chalk dust on stone.
Parker's Wine Advocate awarded the 2015 a perfect 100 points. The Decanter panel agreed. At release, the wine was offered en primeur at around 300 euros per bottle. Current secondary market pricing has settled, if settled is the right word, at approximately 1,200 euros.
The estate recommends drinking from 2030 onward, though the wine is accessible now. The advice to wait is not merely commercial patience. It is technical counsel: the wine will be better.
Drink it in 2035. Or 2045. Or leave a bottle for someone you will never meet.
