Margaux has had a great vintage in 2015. The quality is wonderfully homogeneous this year. The wines have attractive perfume and exciting purity. Many display exceptional balance and in most cases nicely judged extraction. The appellation is topped by Château Margaux and Château Palmer, but it’s fair to say that qualitatively Château Brane-Cantenac, Château Giscours and Chateau Rauzan-Ségla are not much behind. Many reviewers have spotted the quality of Giscours this year in particular. It is exceptional. Yet the real beauty of Margaux in 2015 is that there is quality across the range. Many properties have made some of their potentially best ever wines. Still, whether these justify some of the price rises [up as much as 44% on 2014] remains to be seen.

So what are the principal characteristics of the Bordeaux 2015 vintage? Firstly there is a real beauty to the fruit tones in the red wines this year. Time after time, especially on the Right Bank but also on the Left I kept writing ‘beautiful,’ ‘pretty,’ and ‘delicious.’ There is freshness, despite pretty high alcohols in the main. The vintage is almost a hypothetical blend of 2009 and 2010, but with less evident structure and weight than those vintages. For me it recalls 1985 in terms of that vintage’s early beauty and freshness – and ‘85 remains in great shape today. But the 2015 vintage is by no means homogeneous. In fact there is considerable variability. What is in no doubt is that ‘15 is terrific in St Emilion. There is concentration and delight in so many wines there this year. It has also been strong vintage in the surrounding Côtes de Bordeaux appellation, especially Castillon and Francs.

Château Angludet and Château Cantemerle are two of the best value fine red Bordeaux’s you can pick up. Cantemerle, classified a fifth growth in the 1855 classification, regularly produces top class claret and has been on particularly impressive form in the last decade. This Haut-Médoc is located in Macau, just to the south of the Margaux appellation. Château d’Angludet [now simply labeled Angludet] is a very well-known old Margaux property that was pretty much brought back from the dead by the late Peter Allan Sichel after he purchased the ailing property in 1961. Today the wine has been taken to even greater heights by his son Ben Sichel. It is undoubtedly one of the best value chateaux of this large and heterogeneous appellation. The property has excellent terroir and neighbours Château Giscours and Château du Tertre.

Margaux has had a good to very good vintage in 2014. It vies with 2012 as being the best year here since 2010. The quality is not quite as outstanding as it is further north in the Haut-Médoc [St Estèphe, for example has produced wines that rival 2010] but I was still impressed with many of the wines in Margaux for their balance and elegance. Things feel significantly more homogeneous here than in the past in what remains a very heterogeneous and large appellation. Out side of Château Margaux and Château Palmer I was very impressed with Château Brane Cantenac, Château Giscours, Château Lascombes, Château Marquis de Terme and Château Rauzan-Ségla. There are good efforts too from Château Angludet, Château Cantenac Brown, Château Kirwan, Château Labégorce, Château Malescot Saint-Exupéry, Château Rauzan Gassies and Château Siran.