The Diverse Styles of Château Margaux



Array of Margaux Wines

 13 Oct 2010:  Dinner at Restaurant Petrus at the Island Shangri-La Hotel where we were served wines from Château Margaux - this probably would have raised a few eyebrows in France but not in Hong Kong.  The neon lighting across the urban landscape transformed into fairy lights sprinkled over a sea of darkness from the height of the restaurant, adding an extra dimension to the romantic renaissance décor of the dining room.  We were delighted that Thibault Pontallier (Paul's son) was able to join us to represent the Château.  Thibault spoke about the Château where he grew up, with much affection and then about the wines with even more passion.  Conscious of his young age, he nevertheless impressed us with his energy, enthusiasm, confidence and knowledge - the Château couldn't possibly have found a better brand ambassador for Asia!

We started the evening with some gougères and a glass (or two) of 2004 Pierre Gimonnet Fleuron 1er Cru. Pierre Gimonnet is a grower champagne house based in the Côtes des Blancs.  The family has been making champagne since 1750 and has been described by Michael Edwards in his book "The Finest Wines of Champagne", as the producer of the "bluest of blue-chip Chardonnay champagnes, famous for their finesse".  The family has grand cru holdings in Cramant and Chouilly as well as vineyards in premier cru Cuis, known for its characteristic piercing acidity.  The Fleuron is the family's traditional vintage cuvée, only released in the finest years.  It is a blended champagne with wine from selected vineyards.  The wine is aged on fine lees in bottle for at least 4 years, and released after an additional 3 months of resting. Tasting note for the 2004 Fleuron: "Beautifully balanced champagne of poise and elegance, still a little tight and restrained in its youth, demonstrating a character of green fruit and mineral, layered with some floral and toasty notes, and a delicately creamy texture, with fine mousse, unrelenting acidity and a refreshing finish."    A great value-qualit ratio for wine of such quality. 17/20

Bolstered by the mouth-watering acidity, we were primed for a gourmand dinner prepared by the chef.  First course was seared scallop in a creamy nage with shaved tonka bean.  This was accompanied by the Pavillon Blanc 1998.  This could just be the finest Pavillon Blanc I had ever tasted. (Pavillon Blanc is 100% Sauvignon Blanc.)  It is simply amazing to taste this 12-year-old wine - such a revelation.  A light golden colour.  A wine of immense complexity, depth and lengthy, exuding notes of gooseberry preserve, lemon peel, honey, lanolin, grilled hazelnuts, smoke, and white chocolate spiciness.  The smokey and nutty nuances were even more enhanced on the palate.  Great balance, with a sensuous texture and still plenty of acidity, and a long finish.  Drinking well now and will continue to do so over next 10 - 15 years.  I thought the wine was perhaps a little too characterful (in the positive sense) for the delicate scallop.   I could imagine matching the wine with something like a smokey oyster bisque or a hot smoked salmon dish, or the Chinese smoked chicken dish!  18/20



Fregola sarda pasta

 Next course was the fregola sarda pasta with black pudding, chesnut, apple and warm truffled oxtail jelly.  It actually was really tasty with a very interesting mélange of textures from the ingredients, and a really perfect accompaniment to the second wine of the evening: Pavillon Rouge 2000.  Nose of red fruit, red cherries, blueberries, cedar and mint.  Perfumed, elegant and well-made.  Still a little young, despite it being the second wine of the Château.  The wine opened up further in the glass and gained some more complexity and length.  Drinking well now and will continue to evolve over next 4 - 5 years.  16/20

The third course was veal chop, with wild mushroom and young spinach fricassée, which was extremely well executed by the chef.  The veal delivered such a concentration of flavours and such tenderness.  This was paired with the 1990 Margaux, rated 100 points by Robert Parker.  1990 was a warm vintage and the style of this wine truly reflects the terroir of Margaux and the vintage.  An endearing wine, sensual and alluring.  A complex perfume layered with blackcurrant jelly, blueberry, prune, fig, date, tobacco, balsamic and caramel.  The wine, already decanted for 2.5 hours by now, still tasted very fresh and youthful, with velvety tannin and firm acidity.  Perfect in every way, balance, weight, concentration, depth, and length. Drinking well now (with the right amount of decanting) and will continue to evolve over the next 20+ years.  18.5/20 (It was  a little unfortunate that we had a couple of corked bottles - so we were all rationed to a very small amount, but we made sure to make up for this deficiency with more of the 1986!)



Roast pigeon with foie gras
and giblet sauce

The roast Challans squab, with foie gras and potatoes, and served with giblet sauce, was beautifully cooked, if a little on the rich side.  The meaty, gamey character of the pigeon and giblet sauce married very well with the 1986 Margaux (RP96), an antithesis to the 1990.  The latter so charming, graceful and feminine and the former austere, powerful and masculine.  I was very impressed by the style of the 1986.  It has a nose reminiscent of blueberry, black cherry, blackberry, fig, date, cedar, smoke and a hint of earthy mineral character.  More tannic than the 1990, and displaying a strong backbone of acidity.  This is a wine that will continue to evolve over 20+ years, with a potentially very interesting ageing profile.  18/20

For the cheese course, I returned to the Pavillon Blanc which was really the best wine to go with the cheese selection.  I was very happy that the restaurant managed to source the Abbaye de Citeaux, one of my favourite cheeses (and it's from Burgundy!)......

A beautiful presentation of petits fours graced our table towards the end of this rather indulgent meal.   By this time, we had all been well "nourished" that we hardly made an attempt at these delightful delicacies. 

Congratulations to David and his team and chef Frédéric, who did an amazing job with the food and the service to complement this impressive array of wines - the evening could not have been better!