The aim of recorking is to enable wines which are worthy of longer bottle-ageing to continue to improve beyond their usual life expectancy of 40 years maximum, when they have had a good quality cork from the initial bottling. Some great vintages have in fact lived longer, reaching over 100 years old. Examples are the outstanding years of 1870, 1899, 1900. This will surely also be the case for 1961, as well as some of the vintages produced from 1982 to the present day.

The rules which are observed at Château Margaux for the recorking of old bottles are as follows : When the authenticity or the quality of the bottles is in doubt, or when the wine has no hope of improving any further, we refuse to proceed with any recorking. When the quality of the wines, which is assessed on their nose and verified on their palate, is poor, the bottles are recorked with a neutral cork and their label is taken off, leaving no trace of origin on the bottle.

The recorking procedure is as follows :

1. extract the faulty cork

2. check that the wine smells of good quality

3. top up to the correct level, if there is slight ullage

4. recork with a new cork, marked 'recorked in + year of recorking'

5. put on a new capsule

6. if necessary, change the label if the old one has deteriorated. The new label is a special relabelling label.

- We generally organize just one or two recorking sessions a year so as to have a large enough number of bottles that will enable us to top up with bottles from the same batch.

- The recorked bottles are given laser-marked permanent identification, enabling a long-term traceability.

- This operation is totally free of charge and is offered as a demonstration of the moral commitment we have to our wines.

Recorking is always carried out in our cellars with the possible participation of a certified Bordeaux broker.