Château Durfort Vivens 2015

Critic scores

• Wine Enthusiast97
• James Suckling95-96
• Decanter95
• Vinous93
• Wine Advocate89-91

The 2015 vintage in Margaux

Vintage benchmark: 93/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot summer tempered by August rains gave expansive wines, with rounded tannins and generous fruit.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Margaux. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The color is striking in its cuttlefish-ink hue, deep and brilliant, finely edged with a rim of ruby. The nose delivers all the richness one would expect from the color. The bouquet is intense and deep, harmoniously blending black fruit, liquorice, violet pastilles, cigar box and vanilla pod. It promises a wine that is rich, ripe and fresh all at once. On the palate, one is struck by the remarkable balance between sweetness, freshness and power. The attack is unctuous and lush. The tight-knit texture of fine, silky tannins then lends nobility and breadth, finishing on an aromatic, mineral freshness of incredible persistence. A truly great wine, a magnificent expression of the finest Margaux. It will pair wonderfully with rich, generous cuisine, such as venison or Kobe beef.

Blend of the 2015 vintage

Figures from the 2015 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 32 hl/haYield
• 25 yrsVine age
• 120,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

The team conducted fermentations at low temperatures with short maceration periods for the young-vine lots that had suffered from the summer drought. More intense and longer extractions on the best lots produced a fine richness, both aromatic and on the palate.

Ageing

Château Durfort-Vivens 2014 was aged in barrel for 18 months, with a proportion of 50% new casks.

Terroir

Situated in the communes of Margaux, Cantenac and Soussans, the Durfort-Vivens vineyard puts down its roots on deep and particularly poor gravel rises. These gravels were deposited by the successive beds of the Garonne in the Quaternary era. This great terroir gives Cabernet Sauvignon an early and optimal ripeness, allowing it to express fully the finesse and silkiness of its tannins, the guarantee of the freshness and elegance characteristic of the great Margaux wines. At Château Durfort-Vivens, the constant search for a natural balance between the vine and its terroir is reflected in traditional cultivation practices. In 2012, 80% of the vineyard was farmed biodynamically and 20% under integrated production