Yesterday a dealer called me with this rarity. He knows how much I love the weird, and he was right, my kind of bottle. I did some basic research, and I bought it almost instantly
Totally illegal today of course, and the bottling is apparently from the sixties. No tasting notes, but the color looks good
Anyone taste this or have more info?
Pictures, please.
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The base vintage was 1965. Other vintages were blended in to hopefully improve the overall product- I am not sure which, nor in what proportions.
I would have jumped at the chance too, quite frankly. When I first got into wine, back when first growths were a lot cheaper and off vintages were sold for very low prices in Chicago Wine Company End of Bin auctions among other places, I made it a goal to taste as many first growths as possible in as many vintages as possible. And I got my wish back to 1959.
Given that experience, even though long ago, provided the cork on your bottle remains sound (even in the good Margaux vintages of that era- the corks have from my observation a high failure rate which I think contributes to the overall poor reputation of the wines) then I think the wine is very likely to still be alive and could be a very instructive experience for those who have several TNs of vintages of that era.
At the time I would imagine they made as much of that wine as they could to stay afloat. Given I have never even seen a bottle, I have to think the market generally interpreted the NV designation as a sign to drink soon. Otherwise I would expect to at least see this every couple of years. But, nope- never. Nice find Mark!
The Ginestet family was cash strapped in the 60’s and 70’s so I am not surprised they would try to salvage a weak vintage. Interesting bottle for sure as a conversation piece but not likely a very good wine. Where was Parker when Chateau Margaux was such an underachiever. Like him or not but his influence shut down the level of mediocrity of many French producers in that era.
Fancy fancy.
Please post some pictures and TNs if you do decide to open it. I’ll PM my email if required for pics.
I’m not sure if I’m understanding your point, but if it’s a criticism of Parker I don’t think it’s fair. Parker started writing around 1978 and Margaux has been excellent since that vintage. His first book calls out Margaux for being inferior during the 60’s and 70’s.
The answer to “where was Parker when Margaux was such an underachiever” is “he was a student and lawyer who was learning about wine.”
If the point was that Parker himself caused Margaux to exit its period of mediocrity, that is certainly not the case, because the 78 and 79 were excellent. Parker would have had no influence on producers until several years later. The reason for the improvement was the change in ownership to Mentzelopoulos.
NV Margaux sounds like the NV Palmer I was given a few years ago, which was unlabelled, mostly press wine, given to some of the harvesting team. There is nothing at all to show where it came from, nor from which year, not even on the cork, although it was actually from the 04 vintage. It was good, very good even, very much like a proper Palmer. I’ve still got a bottle which I shall fish out sometime.
This
If someone wants to and can upload pictures, please pm me e mail address.
I spent an annoying hour once and gave up, muttering I am a techno peasant
Here’s the picture of the bottle.
Thanks David