Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château Margaux is a wine estate located in the commune of Margaux-Cantenac, New Aquitaine. Ranked "first great cru" in 1855, it is one of the five most prestigious wines in Bordeaux. Its history dates back to the 13th century with a fortress called "Château de La Mothe Margaux". The estate was profoundly transformed at the beginning of the 19th century, when Marquis Bertrand Douat de La Colonilla, owner since 1801, had the old castle razed to build the present neo-palladian building between 1810 and 1815.

The architect Louis Combes, student of Louis, designed a building on four levels, decorated with a colossal peristyle of four ionic columns and a triangular pediment. This castle is considered the most important neoclassical building in Bordelais. The cellars, a hundred meters long, house an oak frame supported by doric columns. The estate, which has been classified as a historical monument since 1946 and subsequently by an order of 1965, has also been renovated by Toussaint-Yves Catros under the direction of Douat de La Colonilla.

The Château Margaux vineyard covers 99 hectares, 87 of which are dedicated to red wines, mainly in cabernet sauvignon (75%), merlot (20%), cabernet franc (2 %) and small verdot (3%). The estate also produces a white wine, the "Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux", from Sauvignon Blanc. Among his legendary vintages are 1900, 1928, 1945, 1961 and 1982, some of whom received the perfect 100/100 mark by critic Robert Parker.

Successive owners have marked the history of the estate. Olive de Lestonnac, which acquired the "noble house of Lamothe-Margaux" in 1610, enlarged the estate and carried out important works there. In the 18th century, Count Élie du Barry, lord of Margaux, was confiscated during the Revolution. In 1802, Bertrand Douat de La Colonilla bought the castle at auction and began its reconstruction. The estate then passed into the hands of figures such as banker Alexandre Aguado in 1835, who invited personalities such as Rossini, then Frédéric Pillet-Will, who launched the concept of second wine with the "Rouge Pavillon du Château Margaux".

In the 20th century, André Mentzelopoulos bought the estate in 1977 and restored it, allowing it to return to the top of the first vintages. His daughter, Corinne Mentzelopoulos, then led the field with the oenologist Paul Pontallier, who created a research and development department in 2000. In 2015, on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the castle, a new set of buildings designed by Lord Norman Foster was inaugurated, including a modern cellar, an underground wine library and a reception centre.

Château Margaux has inspired other buildings, such as the Kronstad mansion in Norway, whose facade is inspired directly. It is also mentioned in culture, notably in a Spanish zarzuela of 1887 and as the favourite wine of writer Ernest Hemingway. Today, the estate remains a symbol of wine and architectural excellence, combining tradition and innovation.

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