1980

Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux

1980
This was the vintage when we inaugurated the new white wine cellar in the Abel Laurent outbuildings between Château Margaux and Margaux village. This cellar, whose design was based on the ideas of Emile Peynaud, included an air-conditioned room, where all the barrels of the harvest could be placed. This allowed us to both control temperature during the fermentation and accelerate tartaric precipitation during the winter. 1980 is one of Pavillon Blanc's lesser vintages, both in terms of quantity and quality. But as usual, ageing in bottle has given it a complexity which we had not expected even if should ideally have been drunk by now (October 2018)

Margaux

Climate

A disastrous cold, rainy spring held back the flowering, which only took place at the end of June. There was mixed weather in the summer, but fortunately September was sunny and hot. After a rainy start to October, dry, cold weather set in, enabling us to harvest, albeit very late, sufficiently ripe and perfectly healthy grapes. (The picking began 17th October)