Château Margaux 1982

1982 Margaux was always considered the smaller brother of the 83. There are also supposed to be bottle variations for this wine. I can't understand that with this great wine, which I've had the pleasure of drinking a good 15 times since 1989. 1994 at the Margaux tasting in Mautern with a lot of power, fine, sweet fruit and fantastic balance and elegance one of the stars of the tasting - 97/100. 1995 in the Caveau very dense, strong colour, on the palate power without end, long lasting, intensive finish, really great stuff - 97/100. 1997 in Kleinwalsertal pure cassis, crazy concentrate, which is only at the very beginning, but is already great fun - 96/100. 1999 at the 82 tasting an outlier, amazingly bright, closed, developed in the glass, but could not keep up with Mouton and Latour - 93/100. 2000 in a sample from probably somewhat warmer storage a fully drinkable, ripe Margaux dream - 97/100. Tasted blind in 2001 in Hanover, crazy dense, young colour, concentrated Cabernet in pure culture, power without end, that could actually only be Latour or Lafite, but was Margaux in perfection - 99/100. In the same year, I drank it twice more around 83 and in both cases it was the clear winner at 98/100 level, once as a super-concentrated, still very young wine, once from warmer storage clearly more advanced and civilised, yet very delicately scented and elegant with great length on the palate (source: wineterminator.com Dr. Becker).

WA 94 (6/2000): Of all the 1982 first-growths, Chateau Margaux has been the most variable from bottle to bottle. At the Philadelphia tasting, the bottle was maderised, the only truly bad bottle in the impeccable collection assembled by local wine connoisseur Randy Feinberg. From my cellar, the 1982 Margaux exhibits a dark, murky ruby/purple colour with a touch of lightening at the edge. Earthy, truffle, black fruit, underbrush, cedar, and spice aromas are followed by a ripe, full-bodied, chunky wine. This fleshy, powerful effort is somewhat disjointed and rustic at present. Interestingly, I have had bottles that merited nearly perfect scores, and others that were typical of this tasting. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2035.