2021 Château Malescot St Exupery, Margaux, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
The 2021 Malescot Saint Exupéry has quite a high-toned bouquet with black cherries, blueberry and violet aromas, exuberant compared to its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, fine acidity, quite focused yet there is just a little dryness and abruptness on the finish. That might be remedied during its élevage so let's see how this turns out. I was anticipating a bit more from this excellent Margaux estate, but maybe it will meliorate in barrel? Not beyond possibility.
Drink 2028 - 2052
Neal Martin, vinous.com, (May 2022)
Attractive smoky oak, well handled grilled smoke aromatics. This is rich but harmonious and balanced and goes long on the Margaux floral aromatics. Soft on the finish but lots to enjoy. Harvest September 30 to October 20. An enjoyable wine in the vintage from owner Jean-Luc Zuger.
Drink 2027 - 2040
Jane Anson, janeanson.com (May 2022)
Mid to dark crimson. Sweet, seductive nose. Very gentle tannins which lurk rather than dominate. A wine that really does taste like a young wine – and a young Margaux at that – that will blossom. Dry but not too drying finish. Neat. Very classic claret with sufficient but not excessive ripeness. Though there is nothing remotely flashy about it and I may be being too generous with my score; its charms are quite subtle. And it’s not especially concentrated. A ‘fluid’ wine… Some may criticise it for its lack of weight.
Drink 2027 - 2042
James Lawther, jancisrobinson.com (May 2022)
The 2021 Malescot St. Exupery is a terrific effort, offering up aromas of sweet cassis and plums mingled with notions of licorice, espresso roast and toasty oak. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's impressively layered, with a sweet core of fruit, ripe tannins and lively acids. The dramatic style of the château has worked very well with the cooler, later-maturing vintage. The blend is 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot.
William Kelley, Wine Advocate (Apr 2022)
A tight and focused young red with redcurrant and blackberry character. It’s medium-bodied with racy and fine tannins and a linear, focused finish. Lots going on, yet it’s tight and energetic.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (May 2022)
About this WINE
Chateau Malescot St Exupery
Château Malescot-St-Exupéry, a 3ème Cru Classé Margaux property, can trace its history back to the 18th century. Over the years its reputation slipped and the estate became dilapidated and run-down.
In 1955 Malescot-St-Exupéry was purchased by the Zuger family who invested heavily in the estate, and it is now one of the best-maintained and most quality-driven of the Margaux crus. Today it is run by Jean-Luc Zuger. The winery and the cellars are located in the town of Margaux, while the vineyards now consist of five separate parcels in the commune of Margaux.
Malescot-St-Exupéry's wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot - it is matured in oak barriques, 80% of which are new, for 16 months and is bottled unfiltered.
Malescot-St-Exupéry can be light and lean when young but after 6-7 years of cellaring displays a seductive perfume and a harmonious and silky texture which few wines from Margaux can match.
Margaux
If Pauillac can be seen as the bastion of ‘traditional’ Red Bordeaux, then Margaux represents its other facet in producing wines that are among Bordeaux’s most sensual and alluring. It is the largest commune in the Médoc, encompassing the communes of Cantenac, Soussans, Arsac and Labaude, in addition to Margaux itself. Located in the centre of the Haut-Médoc, Margaux is the closest of the important communes to the city of Bordeaux.
The soils in Margaux are the lightest and most gravelly of the Médoc, with some also containing a high percentage of sand. Vineyards located in Cantenac and Margaux make up the core of the appelation with the best vineyard sites being located on well-drained slopes, whose lighter soils give Margaux its deft touch and silky perfumes. Further away from the water, there is a greater clay content and the wines are less dramatically perfumed.
Margaux is the most diffuse of all the Médoc appelations with a reputation for scaling the heights with irreproachable wines such as Ch. Margaux and Ch. Palmer, but also plumbing the depths, with too many other châteaux not fulfilling their potential. There has been an upward shift in recent years, but the appellation cannot yet boast the reliability of St Julien. However, the finest Margaux are exquisitely perfumed and models of refinement and subtlety which have few parallels in Bordeaux.
Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Margaux, Ch. Palmer, Ch. Brane-Cantenac, Ch. Rauzan-Ségla , Ch. Dufort-Vivens, Ch. Ferrière, Ch. du Tertre, Ch. Giscours, Ch. d'Angludet.
Cabernet Sauvignon Blend
Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.
In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and Australia.
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Description
Cabernet Sauvignon 49%, Merlot 38%, Cabernet Franc 8%, Petit Verdot 5%
The team waited until the last possible moment to harvest their final Cabernets; 20th October is one of the latest last-picking dates in the commune. For all that, the wine still has a tendency more towards understatement than intensity, and that ambition suits the style of Margaux well in the 2021 vintage. The aromatics of sweet blackberry and plum are to the fore, and there is plenty of spicy oak which should soften during the élevage. This is a wine which appears to flatter, but in fact is probably more profound than it appears. Drink 2026-2040.
Our score: 16.5/20
Berry Bros. & Rudd, April 2022
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