Château Rauzan Gassies 'Grand Cru Classé' Margaux 1940

Château Rauzan-Gassies – Margaux 1940: A Deuxième Cru Classé from a fateful year

The Château Rauzan-Gassies Margaux 1940 is a wine of exceptional historical significance – a liquid testament to a year that went down in world history, during which the vineyards of Margaux were under German occupation. It comes from one of the appellation’s oldest and most traditional estates and bears the hallmarks of an era in which winemaking was still characterised by craftsmanship, patience and adversity.

The estate: a dynasty spanning over 350 years

The history of Château Rauzan-Gassies dates backto the 14th century, when the noble Gassies family – a vassal of the Lord of Margaux – was first mentioned in a document. Three hundred years later, under the leadership of Chevalier Pierre Desmezures de Rauzan, the estate’s true winemaking history began. Rauzan, who brought his expertise and know-how from the neighbouring Château Latour, created a prestigious vineyard with the Domaine de Rauzan and played a decisive role in establishing the region’s reputation. According to tradition, a severe hailstorm destroyed the vineyards throughout the Margaux region – only the vines of Chevalier de Rauzan were spared. A rumour circulated that birds had protected the grapes beneath their wings, and to this day a winged coat of arms adorns all the Château’s labels.

In 1763, the Domaine de Rauzan was divided into two parts for inheritance reasons – and Château Rauzan-Gassies was established, bottling its first wines that very same year. In the 1855 Imperial Classification, the estate was classified as a Deuxième Grand Cru Classé – a distinction that remains to this day. In 1946, just a few years after the vintage described here, Paul Quié, a renowned wine connoisseur and Parisian wine merchant, acquired the château – a turning point in the estate’s history, as it has remained in the Quié family’s ownership ever since.

The Margaux appellation and the terroir

Margaux is one of the four great appellations of the Médoc and is regarded as the ‘cradle of elegance’ in Bordeaux. The vineyards of Rauzan-Gassies cover 30 hectares in the Margaux appellation and a further 30 hectares in the Haut-Médoc. The terroir is characterised by deep gravel and sandy-gravel soils – remnants of the Garonne River, which lend the wine its characteristic minerality and structure. The current blend consists of 58 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 40 per cent Merlot and 2 per cent Petit Verdot – a classic Margaux blend in which Cabernet Sauvignon plays the dominant role.

The 1940 vintage: a wine in the shadow of history

The 1940 vintage was – as Château Margaux noted in its official vintage description – a year in which it was ‘barely possible to focus on the grapes during the summer of 1940’. The harvest took place in the midst of France’s collapse; German troops marched into Paris in June, and the country was in chaos. Château Margaux noted: “This wine was lost amidst the events, leaving no memory other than that of defeat.” And further: “There are few viticultural memories remaining from this terrible year. The natural conditions do not seem to have been particularly unfavourable, but the follies of mankind ran rampant at that time and made it a very difficult year.”

These words sum up the tragedy of the 1940 vintage: the climatic conditions were not adverse – yet the circumstances of the war made orderly winemaking virtually impossible. Many estates were unable to harvest their grapes in time; there was a shortage of labour, and the infrastructure had collapsed. The fact that wines were nevertheless produced which still exist and can be tasted today – more than eight decades later – borders on a miracle.

Tasting notes: A classic Margaux

The tasting notes for the 1940 Rauzan-Gassies paint a picture of a wine that embodies the classic characteristics of a great Margaux. Idealwine describes it as “a classic Margaux”: the nose develops aromas of violets, blackberries and blackcurrants; on the palate, it is full-bodied and richly structured, yet with very fine tannins in the style of Margaux wines. This description is consistent with the estate’s general style, whose wines are characterised as ‘elegant, refined and complex, with intense colour and a velvety texture’.

For a Bordeaux over 80 years old, such detailed tasting notes are remarkable – they demonstrate that well-preserved bottles from this vintage can still be a delight to drink today. A Japanese wine blogger, who opened a bottle of 1940 Rauzan-Gassies in the 2000s, reported, however , thatthe wine was oxidised and undrinkable – a testament to the natural variation between bottles of wines of this age, which depends heavily on storage conditions and the quality of the cork.

The condition of the bottles: historical artefacts

The bottles from the 1940 vintage offered at auction bear the typical signs of their age. Christie’s describes a lot of six bottles as ‘Château-bottled Wartime glass’ – a remarkable historical note: the glass of the bottles dates from the war years, when sourcing materials was difficult and bottles were often made from inferior glass. The capsules are described as ‘plain capsules’, the labels as ‘bin-soiled’, with one even having come loose. The fill levels varied between ‘two top, two mid/upper and two mid-shoulder’ – a range typical for their age.

A lot of eight bottles was offered at Drouot, with fill levels ranging from ‘upper shoulder to base neck’ and some signs of wear on the label or capsule. These detailed descriptions of condition are of great importance to collectors: they provide insight into the storage history and the expected quality of the contents.

A window into a bygone era

For the collector and connoisseur, the 1940 Château Rauzan-Gassies Margauxis far more than a rare bottle – it is a piece of contemporary history. It was produced in a year when the world was in flames, and was vinified by a château that, even then, could look back on a winemaking tradition stretching back over 350 years. The estate’s wines are renowned for their longevity and their ability to mature over decades. Anyone who opens a bottle of this vintage holds not only a rare Bordeaux in their hands, but a liquid monument to an era marked by war and deprivation, yet also by the unwavering dedication of the winemakers of Margaux.