Château Margaux: the First Growth, Its Wine and How to See It

Key Figures

The table gathers the estate's own published numbers together with the figures from reference encyclopaedias. Where the estate and Wikipedia differ on area or production, both figures are shown so you can judge. All of it comes from the estate's site and from Wikipedia's Château Margaux and Margaux AOC pages.

From La Mothe de Margaux to the Mentzelopoulos Family

The site was known as La Mothe de Margaux as early as the 12th century, and it had no vineyards then. Between 1572 and 1582 Pierre de Lestonnac restructured the property and its vineyards. By the end of the 17th century the estate covered 265 hectares, about a third of it in vines. Early in the 17th century the steward Berlon introduced separate vinification of red and white grapes, which had previously been planted together.

The wine was famous early. The London Gazette announced the first auction of great Bordeaux growths in 1705, 230 barrels of 'Margose'. Thomas Jefferson ordered the 1784 vintage and placed Château Margaux first in his ranking of the great wines. A 1787 bottle bearing his initials was insured at USD 225,000, according to Wikipedia.

The building you photograph today is younger. Bertrand Douat, Marquis de La Colonilla, bought the estate in 1801 and hired the Bordeaux architect Louis Combes. The château was built in neo-Palladian style, with a facade of four Ionic columns and a triangular pediment, and is nicknamed the Versailles of the Médoc. The estate's heritage page dates it 1805 to 1815, French Wikipedia gives 1810 to 1815, and the Marquis died in 1816 without ever living in it. It has been a listed historic monument since 1946.

Ownership changed hands several times: the banker Alexandre Aguado around 1830, Count Pillet-Will in 1879, compulsory bottling at the château in 1925, the Ginestet family around 1950. After three unsaleable vintages they sold to André Mentzelopoulos, the Greek-born owner of the Felix Potin grocery group, a sale completed in 1977 per the estate (English Wikipedia says 1976). With the oenologist Émile Peynaud he reintroduced Pavillon Rouge under stricter selection and planned the region's first major underground cellar. He died in 1980, and his daughter Corinne took over at 27. She bought back the Agnelli family stake in 2003 to become sole shareholder, and in 2023 passed management to her son Alexis.

The newest architecture is Norman Foster's winery, inaugurated in 2015 with 800 m2 and an underground wine library, added to the historic monument. The estate marked the château's bicentenary with a film in 2015.

The Official Visit Policy

Château Margaux's own site says cellar visits are by appointment only, Monday to Friday. It is closed at weekends, on public holidays, in August and during the harvest. Tasting is only for professionals. The head office address is 33460 Margaux, and there is an administrative office at 19 avenue Montaigne in Paris. No price for a château visit or tasting is published, in the sources. In practice, a traveller turning up at the gates should expect to look from outside, not to be shown in.

The lead time needed to book an appointment is not stated in the sources, so plan well ahead and confirm directly with the estate.

What a Day Tour Gives You Instead

A day tour cannot take you inside either. What it can do is put you in the Margaux appellation, at a working château with a tasting, and at the gates of Château Margaux itself for photographs. The Margaux Half-Day Wine Tour from Olala Bordeaux, $101 for 4 hours, includes an explicit photo stop at Château Margaux and two guided visits with 5 wines, one at a Grand Cru Classé. The Médoc and Margaux with Gourmet Platter tour, $100, also lists a photo stop at the château along a platter of cheese, charcuterie and chocolate.

If you want the whole left bank story, the Médoc Half-Day Wine Tour from Ophorus drives past Margaux and Palmer on the Route des Châteaux and tastes at two estates in the southern Médoc. For a full comparison of every bookable option, see the Bordeaux wine day tours table on the homepage.

Area, Communes and Classification

The sources differ slightly on size. French Wikipedia gives the Margaux AOC 1,519 ha across four communes, recognised by decree of 10 August 1954. English Wikipedia gives 1,413 ha across five villages: Margaux, Cantenac, Arsac, Soussans and Labarde. Margaux and Cantenac merged into the new commune Margaux-Cantenac on 1 January 2017, which had 2,845 inhabitants in 2023. By car it is 25.4 km and about 36 minutes from Bordeaux.

The commune holds 21 classified châteaux of 1855, more than any other commune: one Premier Cru, which is Château Margaux itself, five Seconds, ten Thirds, three Fourths and two Fifths. Grapes ripen here 7 to 10 days earlier than elsewhere in the Médoc. In 2023 the appellation produced 58,396 hl from 62 growers, and since 2023 the Castets grape is permitted at up to 5% of the vineyard.

As for Margaux wine: the six permitted red grapes around Margaux are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carmenère, with Cabernet Sauvignon predominant. On the left bank a typical blend runs about 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot, on gravel soils that store and radiate heat.

Châteaux the Margaux Half Day May Include

The half-day listing in the Margaux appellation names two visits without fixing the estates in advance. It may include the following châteaux, depending on the day.

Photo Stop or Drive Past

The figures below come from the tour listings on the booking platforms. The full comparison of every bookable day tour from Bordeaux, including durations, group sizes and what each tasting includes, sits in the homepage comparison. All the tours here depart from central Bordeaux meeting points, none offers hotel pickup, and all offer free cancellation 24 hours ahead.

Wines You Will Not Taste There

Because no tour tastes at the estate, it helps to know what you are looking at through the gate. The Grand Vin takes around 40% of the harvest and averages about 120,000 bottles a year by the estate's count. Pavillon Rouge is the oldest second wine in the Médoc, produced since the 17th century and named so since the 1906 vintage, at about 100,000 bottles. Pavillon Blanc is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the 12 ha plot, carrying that name since 1920. A third wine, Margaux du Château Margaux, has been made since 2009. Prices for these wines at retail are not stated in the sources, so none are printed.

If this page has you planning a right bank day too, the guides to Saint-Émilion, Pomerol wine and the monolithic church of Saint-Émilion cover the other bank in the same detail.