In our previous blog, Chris introduced us to a fascinating tasting with the illustrious Chateau Margaux. The tasting focused on the experiments that the house has been conducting on their wines over the last few years. We continue this blog with the results of two more experiments; red wines under different closures and white wines under different closures.

Chris takes a quick snap of the proceedings.

Experiment 3: Closures (Red Wine)

In this and the following experiment Paul Pontallier, winemaker and MD of Chateau Margaux, showed us the results of wines sealed under 3 different closures; natural cork, permeable screwcap and impermeable screwcap. We were left in no uncertain terms that synthetic cork would not be used for Margaux’s wines – “the trials with synthetic corks didn’t last long as the wines quickly oxidized. After two or three years, it was a disaster” explained Pontallier.

You will be acutely aware of the ongoing debate between cork and screwcap and which is better for sealing a bottle of wine. I am sure that this debate will rage on for as long as wine is made, but this tasting gave us the opportunity to see results from one of the top wine producers in the world.

We were tasting a generic red (most likely Margaux’s 3^rd or 4^th wine) from the 2003 vintage, blind. The wine was not of the greatest quality – all three were suffering from varying degrees of age related illness, but there were definitely differences between the 3 wines.

Wine 1 seemed to show the most age, with plenty of tertiary flavours showing through the fruit. It also seemed to drop off mid palate with very minimal length. Wine 2 seemed to show more prominent fruit character and was not as tired as the first. Wine 3 seemed a little softer on the palate, but was still showing better fruit and structure than the first wine.

After a show of hands to find out the rooms preference, (1^st place – Wine 3, 2^nd place – Wine 2, 3^rd place – Wine 1) the wines were revealed. Wine 1 was the permeable screw cap, wine 2 the natural cork and wine 3 the impermeable screw cap. A slight gasp in the room was heard. Most expected the impermeable screw cap to be the least popular wine, but in fact it was the most popular, and the wine was showing as good, if not better than that sealed under cork.

Pontallier pointed out that although they are trialling these closures on both their first and second wines, it will be many years before a decision is made about changing the closure, if at all. Charles Metcalf asked the all-important question – “if these results continue to show that screw cap gives a better wine than cork, will Chateau Margaux consider changing their closure?” “Why not” Pontallier responded, “It would be hard to resist the temptation. But it is too early [to make that decision] and I will not be the one making it. 10 years is nothing for these wines. We expect these wines to go through a very special evolution for 10, 15, 20 or 30 years…and we are not brave (or stupid) enough to use screwcaps without this knowledge.”

Experiment 4: Closures (White Wine)

In the last of these experiment, we tasted a 2004 second wine under the same 3 closures (cork, impermeable and permeable screw cap). It was interesting to note that the differences between these wines was much more obvious.

Wine 1 showed a lot of aromatic and honeyed notes, along with peach and mango – it was definitely the best wine for drinking now. Wine 2 was much less pronounced with more citrus fruit rather than the stone fruit seen on wine 1. Wine 3 was very lively with great structure and much more typical grapefruit notes, and more balance.

After another popularity contest between the wines (1^st place – Wine 1, 2^nd place – Wine 3, 3^rd place – Wine 2) we were given the details of the wines. Wine 1 turned out to be bottled under cork, wine 2 was bottled under permeable screw cap and wine 3 bottled under impermeable screw cap.

However, even though the majority of the room seemed to prefer wine 1, I wonder whether they were choosing the wine they enjoyed the most now, or if they took into account the fact that these wines should have plenty more life left in them. In that case, I would choose wine 3 as my favourite – it had plenty of varietal character showing, but still had plenty of room for development.

Towards the end of the tasting, Margaux’s Commercial Director, Aurelien Valance was keen to point out one issue with changing from cork to screwcap. He pointed out that one of the main reasons attributed to the change is the issue of ‘corked wines’. However, on a recent tasting trip to California, he was introduced to the opposite issue of ‘screwcapped’ wines.

“I tasted a red Cabernet Sauvignon, and it tasted and smelled like vinegar.” Valance told us. “I said to the winemaker, this bottle must have been open for a month. So he tasted the wine and explained to me that the wine was probably ‘screwcapped’: that during shipping, the bottle had been knocked and the cap liner had moved out of centre, leaving a gap for air to move into the wine. So by changing the closure, we may simply be transferring one problem for another.”

We would love to hear your thoughts on the experiments. How do you read the results? Are screwcaps a realistic option for an estate such as Chateau Margaux? Leave your comments below.

Chris, one of our French wine afficionados, recently had the honour of attending a special tasting event hosted by Chateau Margaux. The aim of the tasting was to analyse results of ongoing experiments on the estate’s wines. Chris had the opportunity to taste some very interesting parcels of wine and discover some surprising results. First up we look at the effects of different farming and destemming methods:

Chateau Margaux director Paul Pontellier

“This is probably the first time a Bordeaux First Growth has gone public with it’s research and experiments” announced Richard Bampfield MW, on introducing Paul Pontallier of Chateau Margaux.

Indeed it was, and a very excited crowd of London wine traders and wine writers were awaiting the results. A tasting hosted by Yvon Mau, this was organised to present up to date findings of a range of experiments on Chateau Margaux’s wines, to the future of our wine trade. “Looking around, this is not a normal crowd for a first growth tasting…much younger”, mused Bampfield, “and this just goes to show the forward thinking nature of Chateau Margaux.”

Pontallier introduced the tasting with his views on the purpose of experimentation. “Knowledge…and technology…is extremely important. So many trends go by, but few remain. We need to be able to discriminate between that element of knowledge or that element of technology to enable us to make some positives off this.”

Chateau Margaux organised their own R&D department around 10 years ago, beginning with 1 person, now up to 2 – a significant effort for one Chateau. “A lot of people just follow trends or their own beliefs… but this doesn’t belong to our culture” says Pontallier of the Chateau. “Our culture is based on experimental science. At the level where we are, we have to experiment very seriously; repeat the experience, and practice doubt. A French scientist once said “doubt is the engine of scientific experiment” and this is so true in our field. If we stop doubting, if we believe we are there and that we have no progress to achieve, this is the easiest way to let our quality go down.”

Currently, Margaux have hundreds of wines under experimentation. They started with their lesser wines, moving on to their Grand Vin and Pavillon Rouge in the last couple of years. At this tasting, Pontallier chose the wines that would be of the most interest – usually their 3^rd or 4^th wines due to diminishing stocks. (All of these experiments, of course, are long-term commitments so he needs to be sure that there will be enough bottles of their top wines left in 20 or 30 years time.)

Experiment 1: Methods of Farming

“Currently, we are close to organics” explains Pontallier “and haven’t used any pesticides or insecticides for more than 10 years. We still spray chemicals against mildew, powdery mildew and botrytis though.”

He hopes that in two to three years the grand vin will be 100% organic, but not for any of the other wines. “The very best plots are the ones with the best drainage and the least vigour, and which are much less sensitive to mildew and powdery mildew.”

He is unsure about the validity of claims of biodynamics, but knows it is necessary to trial it alongside conventional and organic viticulture, the results of which we taste from the 2010 vintage. The plot chosen is of Cabernet Sauvignon that will sometimes make it into the second wine.

We tasted the three wines blind. The first showed good fruit and intensity, while still providing elegance. The second seemed to have darker fruit, and was slightly sharper. The third seemed to be lacking intensity of fruit and was slightly green. My favourite wine was the first (which seemed to be true with the majority of the room) and turned out to be the biodynamic wine. Wine 2 was organic, and wine 3 conventional.

Pontallier pointed out that this is only the 3^rd year of the plots being managed under these methods, so we should see more significant differences in a few years time. Also noted was the difference in alcohol levels between the wines. The biodynamic wines came out at 13.4%, the organic at 13.6% and the conventional at 13.8%.

Experiment 2: Stems

“We wanted to see how important it is to destem” explained Pontallier. “Our tradition has been to almost totally destem”, a standard procedure at Margaux since the early 20^th century. There is much difference of opinion around the use of stems in wine. Producers such as Bernard Magrez of, among others, Chateau Pape Clement works hard to remove every grape from the stem by hand, whereas some have started including a proportion of stem in their wines.

This experiment compared Margaux’s standard destemming procedure (which leaves between 0.03%-0.05% of the ferment as stem) against addition of whole stem (1%) and addition of pieces of stem (1%).

Again, the wines were tasted blind. A better plot this time from the 2009 vintage, one that will usually make it into the grand vin. The results confirmed our, and Pontallier’s, suspicions that the current method of destemming produces the better wines. However, he was keen to point out that this experiment works for his wines, but he could not generalize the results to other wines for which the addition of stems may produce better results.

Continue to Part 2, in which Chris will discuss the results on the hotly debated experiments  on cork versus screwcap.