Chateau Margaux

Château Margaux’s history and renown stem equally from the intrinsic genius of the place as from the contributions made by the various people who have served it for five centuries. But there has probably not been an owner who has played such a decisive role, in such a short time, as André Mentzelopoulos, who purchased the Estate in 1977 and who would have been 100 years old today.

It was the Marquis de la Colonilla who, 200 years ago, left his own mark on the Estate, in honour of the wine, through the construction of this great architectural heritage in a style inspired by ancient Greece; the architect Louis Combes had designed the Château’s peristyle paying homage to the Parthenon. André Mentzelopoulos was filled with pride and happiness at the sight of these Ionic columns that reminded him of his native Greece. More than 160 years later he had the foresight to take the radical measures necessary, in barely three years, to give back to Château Margaux, the lustre that it had lost during the long Bordeaux wine crisis.

Louis Combes and Norman Foster, two centuries apart, were both inspired by the genius of an age-old terroir, paying tribute to one of the world’s greatest wines.